Blood and Profit: Chapter 21

Near midnight Toll returned to the room that he and Rusty had been assigned to. Rusty was still awake, looking something over on a tablet.

“Thanks for not warning me at all about Third's sense of humor.” He smiled as he shut the door.

“Thanks for dragging my ass over two million light years from home.” Rusty replied, putting his tablet down.

Toll sat on his bunk. “Punishment accepted.”

Rusty looked out the tiny porthole window by his bed. “That wasn't your punishment.”

Toll looked shocked. “Seriously? That robot isn't even remotely funny and that story took like five whole minutes to tell. If that wasn't my punishment please get it over with cause, damn.”

Rusty put his feet on the floor. “You know we're never going home, right?”

Toll looked skeptical. “Of course we're going home. And I'm going to take the blame for everything.”

Rusty shook his head. “Damn right you would, but we're not going home so you're off the hook.”

Toll stood up. “I'm not off the hook until I say I'm off the hook. And why do you have to be so defeatist? We're going home, trust me.”

“Well that seals it. Now we're definitely never making it back home.” Rusty laid on his bunk dejectedly.

“What makes you so sure?” Toll asked.

“When you say 'trust me' it pretty much means 'I have no clue what I’m doing right now but as long as I keep doing it then hopefully everyone will forget this was my idea in the first place.'” Rusty turned off the light above his bed.

Toll stared at the ceiling in the darkness. Unable to deny his friend. He rolled on his side. “We're getting on that ship and we're going home.”

Rusty sighed. “That’s a better plan than I've got so sure, why not.”

Neither of them fell asleep, they just laid silently in the darkness. “What do you think their doing back home right now?” Toll asked.

“Nothing. Things are as blissfully dull and slow as they have always been. They probably had a party to celebrate getting rid of the two biggest nuances in a generation but then happily went back to their quiet boring dull lives.” Rusty rolled over, his back to Toll.

“Sounds nice.” Toll remarked. There was silence for long enough that he wasn't sure if Rusty was still awake.

“Yeah, it does.” Rusty finally offered.

It wasn't much longer until they had both fallen asleep.