Creative Writing: The Last Job

Several weeks ago I entered an English creative writing competition in Swiss German University. From eight themes, I chose 'A Cosmic Adventure." This was what I came up in ninety minutes, and this was what won the gold medal.

...Shameless bragging. I still think this could be improved.

The final tests are near, and I may not have time to continue refurbishing this blog. For now, I hope this writing is better than what I did several years ago (As in 'Planet Colony' and 'Criminal Unsuspected'). 

The Last Job

By Nathan Hartanto

           In this universe, only the most heartless will survive. So has been my way of living for years and years.

            Until that fateful day. The day when I did my last job as bounty hunter.

         It was a rainy day as usual in my home planet, I remembered, the torrent blurring the lights from the huge skyscrapers and sky-cars passing overhead. My usual shady employer gave me that job. “Destroy this,” he said tersely, handing me the coordinates. I questioned him no further. He has his reasons and I need the money.

          The guards of the spaceport were not a problem for me. They never were. While usually one needs to fill in all those boring paperwork to leave the planet, I simply boarded my beloved quick little freighter. With an ever-satisfying roar of the ion engines, I quickly escaped the busy planet’s atmosphere and headed for the Moon, where the coordinates were.

        The Moon was no less a commercial center than the planet, fueled by mining companies in search of precious metals. And the coordinates took me to one of the mines, to the far north. I nimbly maneuvered my freighter through the array of spotlights and sensors, until finally I landed in a crater of jagged grey rocks. Around were conveyors and pipes, from the mine I was heading to. So far, everything went well, like they always do.

            Everything, except for my mind. Why am I feeling that something’s off?

          To get to the core, I went through a winding cave system, inching forward with an exo-suit. The adrenaline made me almost unaware of the seeping cold and eerie darkness. Indeed, it was not the first time I would raze a factory, filled with thousands of poor souls, for my own profit.

At the end, there it was, the airlock that led straight in the core. Inside, I opened my helmet, grateful for the warmth, and readied the explosives. There it was, in front of me, the core, which brightly glowed blue, and hummed an electric whir. I immediately rushed to it and planted the charges. Everything was well—
“Dad?”
I turned around. I did not notice the engineer coming in. And for a moment, nor did I notice that the engineer was my own son.
“You haven’t changed.”
“Nor have you.” That was why my son abandoned bounty hunting. He just did not have the stomach to forsake a thousand people in order to destroy a building, just for money.

“If I couldn’t change you back then, then I suppose I can’t now.”

I could have left, and pulled the trigger, and forget about all of this.

“Go on. Pull the trigger.”

I hesitated. Indeed, I am getting old.

“Forget us.”

I gave up.

I turned and disabled the explosives, and started to haul it back when my son hugged me, tears in his eyes.

For another hug, I will forsake my shady employer and his shady jobs.

          I hardly remembered the trip back through the cave, but when I got out, I did notice, for the first time, that the billions of stars are brightly shining down upon me, illuminating this darkness.

           

Made for SGU creative writing competition, which won 1^st place.

Re-written by memory and edited.

Serpong, 21 November 2015