Captain Space Pirate, Gardener

 Captain Space Pirate, Gardener

Captain Space Pirate is alone in his stateroom when from the small safe once intended for the sealed orders for captains of the Fleet, he removes the dog eared paperback he'd taken in the last moments before sealing the airlock on that doomed research station in orbit of Callisto. His bookmark patient. As they watched the burning hull of the station fall toward the orbit of Jupiter, Sven had asked him why, amongst all the expensive research gear they'd not had the time to take, he'd wasted one of his hands grabbing a book, and a book about gardening no less. Captain Space Pirate, whose fingertips - when young - had once known the wet texture of soil, fixed his eyes on the receding research station and pretended not to hear.

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