Starcorp 1: Escape from Sol

The box seats at the front of the stands and the first ten rows behind them were nearly filled when Daniel and Wendy arrived at the Dominion Arena. On the tennis court in the center of the arena were two players engaged in a fierce match. Their play had gone beyond its estimated time. As a consequence of this, the seats reserved for the Beck family were still occupied. Daniel and Wendy, along with many others, took seats near the back of the arena and waited for the contest in play to come to an end. This came to pass a quarter of an hour later. The spectators for that event began abandoning their seats within minutes of this ending, each at their own pace. As they did this, the new arrivals began replacing them in the courtside box seats and the front rows of the stands. Daniel and Wendy were among this group.

The Dominion Arena seats that Daniel and Wendy took were situated at courtside in a fenced off box for six at the midline of the tennis court. Twenty minutes after acquiring these seats the arena was nearly a third of the way filled with spectators. This was not a normal gathering for a tennis match. What made this event special was the nature of the contest. This was one of the five days that the annual RG01 Tennis Tournament Championships were scheduled to play out. The Dominion Arena was the usual location for this events.

The RG01 Tennis Tournament was open to all its members. This consisted of the more than sixty-thousand people that were living aboard the starships Dominion, Oasis, Cambridge, Sonoma, and Amaterasu. The tournament was separated into five divisions, male singles and doubles, female singles and doubles, and mixed doubles. Each division was divided into three categories, adult, adolescent and preadolescent. This was the third year for the RG01 tournament, but they were a common practice throughout the starcorps. Games and contests were a popular pastime of spacers. It was a way of escaping the realization that they lived in a container adrift in space. It also provided the residents with a means of measuring their current state of vigor. A declining performance over multiple years was often perceived as a signal that it was time for a metabolic overhaul.

Daniel’s and Wendy’s presence in the stands had nothing to do with a love for the game and everything to do with their love for their son. Sawyer’s aptitude for sports was a relatively recent discovery for Daniel and Wendy. When they left Earth, Sawyer was four years younger. He was still in the early stages of learning how to use his body efficiently. When he did participate in a sport, he had little opportunity to showcase his athleticism. Organized sporting events were uncommon on Earth. He participated in pickup games in the parks and streets with the other kids, but these were unsupervised activities. They did little to showcase the athletic prowess of anyone in the community. It was the Beck’s arrival into the starcorp community that provided Sawyer with the means to display his athleticism.

On this day, Sawyer was scheduled to play in the adolescent male singles championship match. This division consisted of young men between the ages of fourteen and eighteen years of age. Sawyer had participated in one previous adolescent tournaments aboard the Starship Amundsen. He was fourteen then. His game was lauded as strong and impressive for someone so young. Despite this praise, he did not reach the championship match. He was now sixteen years of age.

Daniel and Wendy made special arrangements to be off work so that they could attend this match. Ever since learning of Sawyer’s proclivity for tennis they took an interest in all his tournament appearances. They were eager to see their children excel and Sawyer was the first to give them something to cheer about. Daphne was academically brilliant, but she was not driven to heights of excellence. Her preoccupation, since reaching adolescence, was more for social interactions and boys. Adam was smart on a genius level, but he was largely disinterested in academics. As his maturity developed so did his skill for discovering mischievous endeavors. Sawyer’s academic prowess was less impressive than Daphne’s and far more so to Adam’s. But his interest and aptitude for sports gave Daniel and Wendy something to become excited about.

It did not take long for the spectators to settle into their seats and for the umpires, the referee, the scorekeeper, the ball-kids and the players to begin strolling out onto the court. Daniel and Wendy noted Sawyer’s presence from the moment that he stepped out onto the arena floor. He found them in the stands a short time after that. He waved and they waved back. Shortly after this, Sawyer had made his way to his chair at one side of the court near the midline and began to make his preparations for the match. Nearly a minute later, his opponent took his seat on the opposite side and commenced to do the same.

The only thing that Daniel and Wendy knew about Sawyer’s opponent was that he was the defending champion and that his name was Joseph Hussmann. They visually measured him against their son and neither took from this a reason to be confident that Sawyer would win. They could see that he was taller, two years older and every bit as athletically built as Sawyer. They both rationalized in their minds that Sawyer had met, and defeated, others that looked to be equally physically fit. However, they could produce no rational to minimize the fact that he was the defending champ.

“Hi,” Daphne announced an instant ahead of stepping up to the entrance to the box of seats where her parents were situated.

Daniel and Wendy made quick turns of their heads to note her with surprised expressions.

“Hi,” Daniel and Wendy returned.

Their looks of surprise were quick to turn into smiles before changing once again into expressions of confusion. The tall, handsome man standing beside her was not the image of the plus one they were expecting.

“Mom, Dad, I want you to meet Benjamin,” Daphne introduced with a smile and nod in his direction.

“Benjamin Romano,” he was quick to add as he jutted his hand out towards Daniel.

Daniel shook his hand and greeted him with a look of curiosity. Wendy greeted him with a modest, “hi.” At the end of this, Daphne led the tall stranger into the box. She and he took seats behind Daniel and Wendy.

“So, are you two—classmates?” Daphne queried with an inquisitive inflection.

“We’re dating, Mom,” Daphne instructed decisively.

Daniel and Wendy noted this answer with glances towards each other. Their surprise was not in the fact that Daphne was dating. Their surprise was due to the age of the person she was dating. Daniel and Wendy still thought of their daughter as a little girl. They did not believe her to be mature enough for a relationship with an adult male. The fact that she was involved with a mature male had Wendy more than a little worried about her safety. Daniel was suspicious of Benjamin’s intentions.

“How long have you two been dating?” Daniel inquired in a slightly stern tone of voice.

“We’ve been dating ever since we got here, Dad,” Daphne confessed softly.

“And I’m just now finding this out,” Daniel challenged in a stronger voice an instant behind.

Daphne was hesitant to respond to this. She had been deliberately hiding her relationship with Benjamin for fear of this response. Up until this moment, this had been a discussion that she was inclined to avoid. It was only through Benjamin’s insistence that they came to this match together.

“We first met on the Amundsen,” Benjamin jumped in to explain. “We only started dating since our arrival here.”

“And you didn’t think to come by the apartment and introduce yourself,” Daniel challenged with a questioning inflection.

Daphne was quick to speak up here and deflect her father’s anger away from her boyfriend.

“Dad, I’m almost nineteen. I can date whoever I want.”

“You’re still a dependent in the home that I provide. I have a right to …”

Wendy had been quietly reading the intonation in the voices of all that were speaking. She had no desire to contribute anything to this discussion at this time. She was more disposed to weighing the passions in the voices of the others. She elected to intercede only after hearing the volume of her husband’s words go a little bit higher than she was comfortable with.

“The match is starting,” Wendy interjected before Daniel could finish his thought.

Daniel reluctantly settled back into his seat to watch the tennis match between his son and last year’s winner of the RG01’s adolescent male singles tennis tournament. Wendy and Benjamin followed his lead. In little more than a minute, the contest was in progress. Shortly into the competition, the Becks and Benjamin Romano were fully invested in its outcome. Their previous discussion had been effectively sidelined for another time.

The match between Sawyer and Joseph was a best of three set contest. Both players battled hard for each game. Daniel and Wendy watched with dread as Joseph won the first set by a score of six to three. This loss heightened their fear that their son would not win a championship this year. By the end of the second set, their hopes were buoyed by Sawyer’s seven to five win. Bolstered by this win, Daniel and Wendy, once again, dared to believe that Sawyer could win. They settled back into their seats and began their wait through the rest break for the next, and last, set to begin.

Daphne’s anxiety was not nearly as high as her parents’. She wanted her brother to win, but she had little emotional investment in either result. She was prepared to give him her congratulations or condolences, whichever was appropriate, and then go back to living her life. Half of her primary goal in attending the tournament had already been accomplished. She wanted her parents to meet Benjamin. Up until this moment, the tennis match was almost a distraction that was preventing her from finishing the task that she and Benjamin had set for themselves. A short time into the rest break she decided the moment was right to finish what they set out to do. She reasoned in her thoughts that the start of the third set would cut short an overtly angry response from her parents.

“Mom, Dad, Benjamin and I are getting married,” Daphne announced with a straight forward delivery.

Daniel and Wendy twisted about in their seats to look at their daughter with shocked expressions. She, in turn, presented a posture of defiance after taking Benjamin’s hand into hers. Benjamin was made uneasy by the abrupt admission and by the startled effect it had on Daphne’s parents.

“What?” Wendy queried with a stunned expression.

“We’re getting married,” Daphne repeated unabashedly.

Wendy continued to look upon her daughter with wide-eyed amazement. Daniel looked back and forth between his daughter and Benjamin with an expression that was a mixture of confusion and anger.

“Mr. Beck, I love your daughter and I want to marry her,” Benjamin declared defensively a few seconds behind Wendy’s report.

“Married,” Daniel challenged with a stern look at Daphne.

“Yes Daddy,” Daphne confirmed with waning resolve.

Daniel took a moment to fume over this response. Wendy used, this time, to make an appeal to her daughter.

“Honey, have you thought about this? You’re still in school.”

“We don’t plan to marry right away,” Benjamin began to explain an instant behind Wendy’s retort. “But we are planning to marry when you transfer back to DCT, Mr. Beck.”

“We don’t want to be separated,” Daphne added to Benjamin’s explanation an instant behind.

Daniel took some relief from the fact that they did not intend on marry right away. He was also relieved to know that this tall, handsome, mature man wanted to marry his daughter. It made him feel better about him. What was causing him the most unease with their plan was the idea that it would break up his family. Daniel was reluctant to lose the daughter that he still perceived to be a little girl, despite her nineteen years. Because of her age, he knew that Daphne did not need his consent. After a short time, he reconciled with the reality that this was her decision to make. He then set his mind to the task of finding arguments to challenge her thinking.

“When my work is completed with this project you’ll likely have anywhere from one to three years of school left to complete,” Daniel reasoned out loud. “As our dependent your tuition is covered by the contract we signed with DCT. I don’t think this is a smart move for either of you,” he finished with a look to Benjamin.

“We’ll be separated if we don’t marry while we’re here,” Daphne insisted with a pleading inflection.

“But that can’t be for long,” Wendy quickly asserted to Daphne. “You can continue to date on DCT and…”

“No Mom,” Daphne interrupted with a shake of her head. “You don’t understand.”

“What don’t I understand,” Wendy questioned with a confused expression on her face.

“I’m not coming back to DCT anytime soon,” Benjamin explained softly.

“Why not?” Daniel asked with a stern look to Benjamin.

Benjamin hesitated to consider how Daniel and Wendy would take the news he was about to tell them. For a moment, he considered the possibility that they might become more averse to their marriage, and then he told them.

“RG01 has been recruiting pilots for a space force that they are developing. Six months ago, I signed on as a fighter pilot.”

Daniel began processing this information with stoic silence. He immediately understood that they had given a lot of thought to their situation and came to this decision after careful consideration. Intellectually he could find no flaw in the logic of their thinking, but physically he was finding this to be a hard pill to take. Dread swelled up inside of him. It was fomented by the knowledge that his little girl might be separated from him across millions of miles of space. Still, he had no response to give to this. He could only stare into his daughter’s eyes as he considered this possibility.

“Time,” the umpire shouted for all in the arena to hear.

Daniel had no reaction to this. He continued to hold a plaintive gaze upon his daughter and she returned it in kind.

“Honey, you can’t do this,” Wendy, mournfully, insisted after a moment of thought.

“I’m staying with Benjamin, Mom,” Daphne replied an instant behind.

Wendy took a moment to note the resolve in her daughter’s voice and manner. At the end of this time, she looked to her husband for some sign that he would back her in this appeal. Daniel, in turn, shook his head as if to say he had nothing and then offered a suggestion at near to a whisper.

“No one is going anywhere for at least another year. We can talk about it later.”

The Becks and Benjamin turned their attentions back towards the court and the third set that was commencing. For Daniel and Wendy holding their attention onto the contest was a difficult task. For nearly the whole of the set, their thoughts would wander back to their daughter every few minutes. This alternating back and forth went on until the tiebreaker began. From the moment that this period started, Sawyer had his parent’s full attention.

The tiebreaker game between Sawyer and Joseph went back and forth for a half-hour with no clear indication which player was closing in on the win. Daniel and Wendy followed each serve and volley with bated breaths. At the end of this half-hour, an opportunity emerged for Sawyer to win the match. Wendy reached out with nervous anticipation and grasped her husband’s hand. With one final serve and four successive returns, Sawyer clinched the match to the astonishment of his parents. They jumped to their feet and roared with excitement. The sound of their acclamation was lost within the din of the cheers of the crowd.

“He won,” Wendy exclaimed as she threw her arms around her husband and embraced him.

“Yes he did,” Daniel countered excitedly.

The two of them embraced each other with large grins spread across their faces. Daphne and Benjamin shared in this excitement to a lesser extent. After another minute of cheering from the spectators, the ceremonial presentation began. Beneath the gaze of proud parents and the cheers of onlookers, Sawyer took the championship cup and held it up over his head. After another few minutes of applause, the crowds began to switch out for the next tournament game. Daniel, Wendy, Daphne and Benjamin were among the spectators leaving.