This is the first entry of Dahvin Tave, new captain of the Gilded Starlilly. Marlon Tave died on 7.20.5417 of an unexpected heart attack. Two years ago when I nearly died from starvation and beatings, Marlon rescued and adopted me and gave me his last name. I was kidnapped and enslaved as a child and couldn’t remember mine. He had no other heirs, and per documents recorded in the ship’s registry, the Gilded Starlilly now belongs to me. I can’t describe how I feel, I am just numb. Marlon taught me well, and though I was only with him for a little over a standard year and a half, I know how to operate and maintain the ship, and will be able to continue the cargo business. But I am afraid my heart died with Marlon. I don’t think I’ll be able to feel anything for anyone else. He was more than a teacher and the father I never had, he was my personal savior.
Marlon taught me about the religious beliefs of various cultures, and many of them reference a savior. In most theologies, the savior was a person, sometimes a god or spirit, nearly always someone (or something) in the distant past with whom the current populace has no physical interaction. I find it hard to understand how people can continue to believe in someone who is never seen or heard, and whose influence is more imagined than real. But my savior was real, and his loss is devastating.
I will continue our current cargo run to Argus and do what I have been trained to do. But I don’t think I’ll ever be a whole person again.
