Visions of Iotan

Chapter 2

Chapter 2He spent his first day getting to know the rest of the prisoners. It was true that most of them were here because of drug charges, which the Monks apparently took very seriously. But not all of his new colleagues were nonviolent. And of the more dangerous ones, very few of them wanted to speak with him. One who did was a man who had gotten into a fight with a Monk teenager. He pulled a razor blade on the poor kid and drunkenly slit its throat. As far as Cillian could tell, this man—nicknamed Cobra, of all things—was the only other lifer. Cobra deserved to be here, Cillian thought. He would be spending a lot of time with him.

Marlena and some of the other drug dealers regaled him with stories about being in Monk prison. They explained the histories of all the violent offenders, Cobra included, as well as highlighting their own misdeeds. By the end of the second day, he knew far more than he ever imagined about a group of prisoners. He considered taking notes, but decided against it. Something bad could happen if one of the violent people found out he was keeping tabs on them.

Cillian otherwise kept to himself whenever possible. Socializing was low on his list of priorities, but he did it to pass the time and ease boredom. It also helped him ignore the reality of the situation: that he would never set foot on real soil again or live in his house with his family. That truth, as difficult as it was to accept, formed a lump in his throat that stubbornly refused to go away. At any given moment, he felt like he could weep uncontrollably and never stop.

* * * *

A few days into his sentence, a new face appeared. There were regular visits to the other inmates from family and friends, but this was different. A priest. He came into the room without pretense and took a seat at the far end. Easily a third of the prisoners got up immediately and went to him. They sat on the floor and waited like children. He opened a Bible filled with sticky notes and began reading a passage. When he finished, he switched to a sermon about redemption. After that, he gave them communion and offered to hear their confessions.

The man was older, with pure white hair, cropped short. His blue eyes pierced through Cillian. The priest maintained a serious expression throughout the makeshift mass, but he radiated calm and acceptance.

Cillian used to be Catholic, in another lifetime. Before he met Jack. Before they paid a wonderful woman to carry Henri. Nowadays, he was agnostic. He watched Jack pray to Allah five times per day, but he didn’t understand the devotion. Even Henri had begun mimicking Jack. He bought her a little rug to use in prayer, and they did it together whenever she wasn’t at school. He took her to a mosque. She loved it. As far as anyone was concerned, they were a Sunni Muslim family.

This fact overjoyed Jack’s extended Egyptian relatives, who adored the little girl and found her religious efforts to be admirable. They were more than happy to accept Cillian, too, since he didn’t outwardly display any other religion.

But Cillian felt a tug on his inner self. Before he realized it, he drifted over to the priest and watched the tail-end of the sermon. As they went for communion, he stood back, staring. The priest noticed him, of course, and motioned for him to come forward. He didn’t know why, but he did so.

The priest gave him communion in the form of a gulp of wine and a small wafer. He blessed Cillian before moving on to other prisoners. Cillian waited until they were all finished to speak to the priest.

“What’s your name, Father?” he asked.

“Conner Whalen. And you, son?” Irish, like his mother. No doubt about it.

“Cillian.” He felt no need to share his Tagalog surname, though he wasn’t ashamed of it. His heritage meant a lot to him, despite a rocky relationship with his parents and extended family. He considered himself Filipino, and had visited the Philippines three times. But, in his heart, Kamal—his husband’s last name—was his, as well. He simply hadn’t filled out the appropriate paperwork to make the change.

“I haven’t seen you around here, Cillian. Are you new?”

“Uh, yeah.”

“Well, welcome. We can always use more members of the flock.”

He coughed. “I’m not—I haven’t been Catholic in a long time.”

Whalen laughed and reached into a bag nearby. He pulled out a brand-new Bible and handed it to Cillian. “You never really stop being Catholic.”

Cillian took the book but didn’t look at it. What was he going to do with a Bible? He’d already read it as a kid and had no interest in doing so now. But he wasn’t going to reject a gift from a priest. “Thanks,” he said.

“Would you like for me to hear your confession?”

He shook his head. “Maybe another time, Father.”

“Fair enough. Have a good day, Cillian.”

* * * *

Months passed. He settled into a routine of eating, washing, watching TV, and occasionally playing a game or two with one of the other prisoners. Monotony was the biggest problem, and it drove him stir-crazy. But today was different. Today, Jack and Henri were coming to visit.

It was the fourth such appointment, as they were only allowed to come to the ship every few weeks. But he couldn’t be more excited to see them. He put on his best clothes—ones that Jack had brought him shortly after the trial—and waited impatiently for them to arrive. When they finally did, he had to hold back tears.

Henri ran up to him and hugged him as hard as she could. He picked her up and spun her around. “Oh, I missed you!” he told her.

“I missed you too, Dad.”

Jack came over and kissed Cillian. He wrapped his arm around him, and the three walked over to a bench. They sat down, with Henri climbing into his lap. “How was school today?” he asked.

“Good. I got out early to come see you!”

“Oh, really?” He glanced at Jack, who gave a nod. His husband looked just as thrilled to be with him as their daughter, though there was a hint of sadness on his lips. Henri showed no signs of depression. She was just glad to be here.

“Henri made you some drawings,” Jack said. He handed Cillian a stack of colorful paper.

Making certain that his daughter saw him look, he went through each one slowly. There were stick figures of him and Jack, of her, of Monks, and of their little house. He tried not to show how emotional they made him. Instead, he smiled as big as he could and complimented her drawing skills.

He didn’t notice when a large Monk entered the room. It was only when it walked up to them that he looked away from Henri and her art.

“Can we help you?” Jack asked.

It nodded like a human. “Forgive me for intruding,” it said in near-perfect English. “I couldn’t help but notice your lovely family.”

Cillian stiffened his posture and wrapped one arm around Henri. “They’re my whole world.”

“I can see that.” It lay down on the floor. A submissive gesture. “I have a proposition for you. How would you like to leave this place and be with your family permanently?”

He blinked. “I’d say what’s the catch?”

“I am leading a group of around forty of my kind to a nearby star system to investigate a habitable planet. We intend to bring a few humans in order to study how they react to long-term space travel, as well as visiting the planet. You would be given room and board, free education for the little one, and anything else you need.”

“What?”

The Monk produced a noise similar to a laugh. “My people will not allow you to return to Earth at present, but I have been given permission to take anyone I want. I know your past, but while it’s unfortunate, I think you would be a good candidate for the mission. You are young, healthy, and full of life. I imagine you could be useful on the ship as well as the planet.”

“How long would it take?” Jack asked.

“About a year to get there. Unknown amount of time on the planet. And then the same trip back. How long we spend on the planet depends on whether or not we find life. If we do, we will want to categorize it and learn from it. If it is intelligent, we will want to speak to it, which will require learning the language.”

The Monks were surprisingly good at absorbing human languages. English was high on their list, but they studied everything from Mandarin and Arabic to Romanian and Jamaican patois. Many individuals also spoke a couple alien languages that were not their own.

“If we don’t find life, we will take a survey of the planet’s natural resources and then quickly return to Earth. I can’t promise you’ll be freed when we come back, but I think working toward our cause will likely turn things in your favor.”

Cillian turned to Jack with a more genuine smile on his face. “What do you think?”

“It’s a long time to be away from everyone, and Henri would have to drop out of school…But if it means you’d be free, I’d do it in a heartbeat.”

“What about you?” he asked Henri.

“I wanna be with you, Dad.”

“And you’ll get to go to space!”

She shrugged. “That’s good, too.”

Cillian turned to the Monk. “We’d love to do it. When can we start?”

“The ship leaves in three days. In that time, I would suggest gathering your belongings.” It turned and made its way toward one of the corridors.

But Jack’s voice stopped it. “Hey, what’s your name?”

It made a series of clicking noises before laughing again. “The humans call me Angel. I think it’s because I’m a pilot.”

“Thank you, Angel,” said Cillian. “Thank you so much.”

With a big smile, Angel left.

Jack and Cillian embraced one another and soon included Henri. They were overjoyed. Jack had some reservations, since his parents were still alive and aging. “I won’t be able to take care of them. Something could happen, and I wouldn’t even know about it. But,” he paused, “visiting another planet sounds amazing. Especially on a Monk ship.” Jack was an engineer, and he got to work with their technology every day. Being surrounded by it must have been a dream of his.

“Do you think we’ll have jobs on the ship?” he asked what Cillian was thinking.

“Probably. I bet they could use your expertise a lot.”

“What about you?”

“I don’t know if I can be much help.” Cillian worked as a hospice nurse. He specialized in helping dying humans be comfortable before they passed. He didn’t know a damn thing about spaceships or even Monk anatomy. Most of his education happened before they even arrived. There was a good chance Henri knew more about them than he did.

Jack kissed his cheek. “I’m sure they’ll find something for you to do.”

“Yeah.”

They spent the rest of the visit in high spirits, talking about what they thought the ship might be like and how they would handle life in space. Henri seemed especially excited, since she truly adored the Monks. Her imagination provided all sorts of possibilities regarding the unknown planet. She fantasized about making new friends there, about visiting whole cities and learning alongside the Monks. Cillian didn’t know how they would be received by their shipmates, given what he’d been convicted of, but he put that worry in the back of his mind. They were really going to be together! He tried to focus on that.

When Henri and Jack had to leave, Cillian no longer felt sad. He only had to wait three days to see them again. It was going to be great.

* * * *

Word of his success reached the other prisoners in no time. They were particularly hard on him as a result, even though only Cobra had a life sentence. They said rude things to him, refused to eat with him, and one guy even tried to beat him up. He got a black eye as a result, but nevertheless fought off the attack thanks to a few boxing lessons back in college.

The next day, one of Angel’s underlings came for him. The Monk was named “Rapunzel” because its tentacles were longer than average. It removed his bracelet and handed him a blue uniform jacket to wear. He waved goodbye to the inmate who punched him while brandishing the biggest smile he could muster.

Cillian followed Rapunzel through the ship to a smaller transport vehicle. Giddy, he looked out the front window as they floated to their destination.

The new ship, dubbed the Educator, was sleeker. Less like a boat and more like a giant plane that was fat in the middle. It looked fast. It had been built out of materials from Earth for the purpose of further space exploration. While the tech was all alien, it had stairs and benches and other adjustments for humans built-in instead of added later.

Rapunzel left him in the equivalent of a lobby and scampered off to perform some other task. Cillian took a seat and waited, watching the doors where transports docked to the ship.

While the portals opened fairly often, to reveal Monks reporting for duty, it took two long hours before he saw another human, and an additional hour before he caught a glance of the ones he cared about. Henri came running out of the transport and embraced him as he got up. She carried a pink backpack, wore a matching blue uniform, and her thick hair was neatly tied back with colorful plastic hearts. Moments later, Jack appeared, pulling two suitcases and hauling a duffel bag. Cillian rushed over to him and took the luggage so he wouldn’t have to carry it all by himself. Jack held him by the back of his neck and kissed him deeply.

“What happened to your eye?” he asked after having a long look at him.

Cillian shrugged. “Someone thought they got a raw deal, what with me getting to leave and all. But it’s no problem. It doesn’t even hurt.”

“Still.” His hand caressed the area near the bruise.

“I’m okay. I promise.”

“I can’t believe that we get to be together again, and on a space mission, too. I just can’t believe it.”

He kissed Jack once more. “How did your family take it?” Not a single one of his own extended relatives came to see him in Monk prison. He was okay with that. Jack and Henri were his real family, and he found himself embraced by Jack’s parents and siblings. They would miss him. And for Jack, it would be a real loss to become cut off from them.

Jack stiffened his posture. “Mom was crying. I couldn’t get her to stop.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“Farooq and Naji were pretty messed up, too. And though my dad tried to hide it—you know how he is—he seemed upset. I hugged them all for a really long time, gave them some pictures of us, and told them not to worry. I don’t know if it helped or not.”

“Grampa kept saying ‘Jameel, Jameel,’” Henri added. “Jameel” was Jack’s real first name. But Cillian only ever knew him as Jack, since that’s how he introduced himself to others.

He embraced Jack and held him for a minute or so. His shoulders shook, and hot tears fell onto Cillian’s shirt. Henri shifted her weight anxiously nearby. “It’s okay, Daddy,” she said. “We’ll be back soon.”

Cillian wasn’t so sure about that. It would be at least two years, just in travel time. Who knew how long they would spend on the planet? And Angel seemed to prioritize investigation over returning. He made no promises about life after the trip. For their little family, living aboard this ship was their foreseeable future.

Jack picked Henri up and kissed her forehead. “That’s right,” he lied. “We’ll be back before you know it.”

The three of them began walking deeper into the ship. It was about ten minutes before they found someone who could tell them where their room was. A smallish Monk took them to an area of the ship reserved for human living quarters. They walked down the hall until they found a door with Cillian’s last name engraved on a plaque. Galang. Though he obviously would have preferred Kamal, it didn’t seem like his family minded that only his name was present. They opened the door and gawked at the room they’d been given.

Or rather, rooms. There was a main bedroom, a small kitchen, a bathroom, and a side bedroom. The walls and ceiling were that beautiful woven texture, and the beds and furniture looked like they’d been grown from the floor. Of course, it was just for aesthetics, but Cillian couldn’t help but be astounded. Even having a real bed was a luxury he thought he’d never enjoy again, let alone getting to share it with his husband.

Jack opened the cupboards and found them filled with food, most of it wrapped up in vacuum-sealed bags. There was even fresh fruit—including apples—and cereal for Henri. Cillian smiled wide.

Henri ran into her bedroom and jumped on the bed. “I have my own room!” she called.

“We can see that,” Cillian replied. “Do you like it?”

“It’s so cool.”

Cillian took a seat on his new bed. Jack joined him, and for the first time in months, they held hands. It felt right. In a low voice, Jack spoke into his ear. “We’re really doing this, aren’t we?”

He nodded. “I guess we’re space explorers now.”

“I like the sound of that.”

“Me too.”

* * * *

The ship stayed in orbit for just a day before taking off for Iota Horologii, a faint star that was actually bigger than the sun. The unnamed planet appeared rocky and only a little bit larger than Earth. It likely had oceans, and it was a great candidate for life. Colloquially, the Monks had begun calling it “Iotan” whenever they spoke of it in English.

Jack was immediately employed in the engine room, keeping an eye on the power cells and learning the ropes of an alien ship. He complained of needing to learn the Monk’s written language in order to understand the controls, but he seemed to like where he was stationed.

For now, Cillian spent his days looking after Henri. School for her would start in about a week’s time. Before that, he had her pretty much to himself. They played games and went for walks around the ship. They made up for lost time. There were a few other human kids on the ship, and she met each one. They all seemed to like her bubbly personality. He felt good knowing she would at least have some peers of her own species.

Of course, she made friends with Monks, too. Despite her history, the parents didn’t seem to mind letting her around their children. Cillian didn’t allow Henri to bring any human food to her visits with them—even though she’d learned her lesson. There was no reason to worry the Monks or make them think he wasn’t being responsible. She happily played with kids of both species. Increasingly, she clicked and buzzed like the Monks did, even repeating whole words. This development only led to the Monks liking her more.

When school started, it was a combination of tech, culture, and history. Henri learned alongside humans and Monks. All the information was a mixture of both worlds. At the end of the day, she spoke of Monk heritage. “Dad, did you know they lived in space for centuries before they found us?”

He did know that. It was one of the few things he knew about the Monks. They once had a home on a crowded planet with other alien species, but they left it to live a more migratory lifestyle. They stopped at various planets, looking for intelligent creatures. Along the way, they gathered resources, built new ships, and lived for generations in space. When they found Earth, they rejoiced, because they could finally rest.

All things considered, this ship and mission proved that the Monks still loved space and exploring.

“What else did you learn today?”

“I learned that humans need suits to live in space. Do you think I’ll get my own space suit?”

“Maybe when you’re a little older, sweetheart.”

“I hope they give me one so I can go on Iotan.”

He didn’t know if they would be allowed to leave the ship or not, but he didn’t see any harm in imagining it. “We’ll go together.”

In the evening, Jack returned as he had every night since they boarded the ship. Cillian made them dinner, and they ate it in their little kitchen. After, Henri went to sleep, and the two men settled into bed. Quietly, so as not to wake their young neighbor, they did some exploring of their own.

Cillian lay nestled in the soft blankets and pillows as Jack worked diligently, kissing his chest and feeling him with one hand. Cillian closed his eyes. He ran his fingertips over his husband’s back as it undulated beneath. It wasn’t long before lubricant was applied, and Jack slipped inside him. Cillian pulled him down for a slow kiss and breathed against him. Jack pushed slowly in and out. Soon, the warmth of the room made his skin glisten with sweat. Cillian ran his hands all over him.

As Jack’s lips moved to his neck, Cillian found himself in complete ecstasy. He moaned. His body moved up and down a few inches with Jack’s thrusts, and he enjoyed every minute of it. He cherished this. It was only a week ago that he thought he’d never have it again, and now it was every night. Of course, they had to be quiet and relatively quick to avoid waking Henri—the walls were surprisingly thin—but Cillian didn’t care. He had Jack. They were together again.

Jack held him as his back arched off the mattress. He pressed deeply inside him, and Cillian let out a little gasp. Jack pushed harder and faster until Cillian could take no more. He covered his mouth to avoid making any noises, but a muffled cry of pleasure escaped his lips. He orgasmed against Jack’s tight stomach.

It took a couple minutes for his husband to climax. He got the impression that Jack was holding out as long as he could, to make sure Cillian came first. Once he did, it was only a matter of achieving the right rhythm.

They cleaned themselves up before returning to bed. Naked and exhausted, they fell asleep in each other’s arms.