Free Salvation by Aeon Igni

need to talk to you."
    My heart started to pound.
    "One of my friends is putting in at the same port as we are tomorrow. He is the captain of a transport ship for passengers, and he needs a translator. I told him that I would transfer you to his ship, and you'll leave with him."
    I shrank away from him and I knew my mouth was open in horror. I could feel the blood drain from my face and my entire body started trembling. My worst fears were happening. He was forcing me off his ship.
    "B-but I'm a good translator," I stuttered, my teeth starting to chatter.
    He cursed. "Dammit, Simmons, why do you always make me want to protect you?" He clenched his fists. "I'm not abandoning you. I'm sending you to the man who is my closest friend besides Jeremiah. I trust him completely, and he has promised me that he will look out for your best interests. The job is very safe, and they only go to the wealthiest planets."
    He took another drink of his beer, then continued. "You are truthfully the best translator I have ever had. I can't deny that I am going to be sorry to see you go."
    I just wanted him to leave so that I could cry, but it seemed he was trying to convince me that forcing me to leave was the right decision. 
    "Remember I told you that being a captain is a responsibility? Well, it is. I have to think of my crew and what is best for them. You are very young, and you need an opportunity to travel work with different types of ships and meet different types of people. Believe me when I say this...I'm doing what is best for you."  He plunked down his glass roughly to punctuate his last sentence, then stood up and left.
    Once he was gone, I fell off the sofa to my knees and shoved my fist into my mouth, trying to control my gasping sobs. The emotional pain I felt was almost physical...it felt as though he had shoved a knife into the center of my chest. I couldn't breathe, couldn't move, couldn't do anything except kneel there with my arms about myself and tears slipping down my cheeks.
    Finally, I crawled over to my bed and covered my cold body with the blankets. I needed to sleep to be ready for what faced me, because t omorrow, I was going to lose the only home I'd known in years, and the only man that I had ever truly loved.
     
    My hands were shaking as I packed my bags. Although I had only brought the backpack when I had arrived, my shopping spree had been enough to fill the larger duffel bag which had magically appeared outside my door this morning.
    My emotions were in turmoil, and I knew I had to get them under control. I wanted to hate him for abandoning me. But unfortunately, I knew that he was trying to do the right thing, and that made me love him even more.
    And a lthough I wanted to beg to stay, I knew that I should get off the ship as soon as possible, because I wasn't going to be able to hide my femininity for much longer. I'd already been on the ship for a year, and I had to face the fact that I didn't look like an eighteen-year-old male. It was better for me to leave nobly, and for him to remember me as a good translator who had idolized him than as someone who had lied to him the entire time he'd known me.
    I didn't know everything about the captain, but the one thing that I did know was that if he ever found out about my deception after all this time, he would never forgive me.
     
    When my bags were packed, I knew that I couldn't avoid it any longer. I threw my pack over one shoulder and heaved the duffel up over the other one. Then I took one last look at my quarters. They were clean and bare, and it seemed as if I had never even lived there.
    I walked slowly down to the cargo bay, which I knew would be bustling with merchandise being loaded and unloaded. There would also be a crew fixing the burnt section where the fire had been; my last job as a translator had been to hire them. Life for everyone would go on as normal, life for everyone but me.
    I saw the captain standing in the middle of the hold, as always,