Aquaria - 3. Aqu Chapter 3

The Captain sat in a chair nearby to where Trenton was seated and waited a few moments before speaking, “I know this is all quite a big shock for you, and you are welcome to take some time off, if you need to reassess your life, and decide what you want to do, now that you know the truth about why you are working here on Aquaria. I have been trying to get Hamysh to tell you the truth for some time.

The other bit of news that you were not told, is that Hamysh’s youngest sister – Natalia, is my wife, so I guess you are my nephew by marriage. Knowing who you are from the very start, I have not wanted to give you any special treatment, because you are the boss’s son and my nephew, and all you have done so far is what you have achieved on your own, and like Hamysh said about being proud of you, I too wish to convey to you that I am very proud of what you have achieved.

You have worked hard and thanks to your blog, you have also established an education programme to a Grammar School in Perth, which has been very successful, and I guess you won’t be surprised that we have a member of the Corporation who works as a science teacher at the school and has been monitoring the progress of the project.

I will leave you now, to let you think about this some more, just remember that your family is fully supporting you, oh and yes we are aware of your private secret, and your father, aunt and I are fully supportive of your lifestyle” the Captain said as he stood up and left the room, leaving Trenton stunned at the last bit of news.

Trenton was confused and didn’t know, how they knew that he was gay, it had been something that he had decided as a young teen to keep a secret for as long as he can, and he had only had one short termrelationship, which lasted only a few months, from the time he finished high school and before entering the Defence Force Academy.

Unknown to Trenton, Dr James Brighton is the younger brother of Mitchell, the young man that Trenton had a relationship with as an eighteen-year-old, many years ago, and James was fully aware of the relationship, as James and Mitchell are close brothers and shared many secrets amongst them.

As Trenton was staring at nothing, the computer signalled that there is an incoming email, Trenton stared at the lap top for a moment, before going to it to open the message, “From James Brighton, To Trenton Blackthorn.

I hope the article that I sent to you has not caused too many issues for you, let me know when you want to talk again about the next series of lesson plans for the school, look forward to your reply. PS; my brother Mitchell sends his best wishes."

It took a few moments to register the connection, but when Trenton remembered, he just closed the laptop lid and went to his cabin to have a long hot shower to help him to relax, and to get his mind around all the information that he had learnt in just a short period of time. After the shower, Trenton collapsed onto his bed and promptly fell asleep from exhaustion.

Trenton ended up sleeping for the rest of the afternoon, and was woken by the sound of the intercom, “Lt Commander Blackthorn, this is the Captain, are you ok?”, when Trenton was properly awake he said that he was fine, and that he had fallen asleep, and the Captain accepted his reply and signed off.

About twenty minutes later, Trenton made his way to the officer’s dining room on the 2nd deck to get some dinner, and as he approached the entry, he changed his mind and went to the smaller cafe one deck down instead, and ordered a toasted sandwich, a bowl of soup and a cup of tea to go, and once he had collected his tray of food, he made his way to his private lounge to eat his food in solitude.

Once Trenton had finished his dinner he made his way next door to his office to do some more work on the next lessons for the Grammar School, and it was getting quite late by the time he had finished what he needed to do and made his way to his cabin to get some more sleep.

Over the next few days, Trenton spent most of his time in the lounge or in his cabin, making an occasional visit to his office if he was needed for an urgent matter, but once that was done he would retreat to the lounge again, so he could be alone.

After three days of Trenton keeping to himself and doing just the basics of required work, the Captain decided he needed to get him back into a routine, and after having a discussion with the managing director, he went looking for Trenton.

The Captain found Trenton sleeping in his cabin, and once Trenton was awake and realised who had woken him up, he rushed to the bathroom to clean-up a bit, before returning to the cabin to face the captain.

The very emotional conversation lasted for over half an hour, and in that time, Trenton expressed his confusion and stress of his father and boss, and the vessel’s captain, knowing that he is gay. The Captain, his uncle said that the family had a strong suspicion that he was gay, and it didn’t matter who he loved, if he is happy.

After a long shower and something to eat, Trenton returned to his office to start catching up on work that he had neglected over the past few days. Within a few days Trenton was back to himself, keeping very busy with is work on the vessel including the education programme for the grammar school, which he had to continue, even thou he was still a bit shocked about knowing that the teacher he has been working with on this project is the brother of his former lover.

Mitchell had been very supportive of Trenton’s career choice and asked that maybe one day when life happens to favour the right time, that Trenton would get back into contact. During the emails with James, Trenton decided not to mention Mitchell, as he was still not sure if he wanted a relationship, especially now when he is travelling all over the oceans of the world.

Unknown to Trenton, James had sent an email to the Captain of the vessel, asking him for some assistance with a delicate personal matter regarding one of his crew members, when the captain read this, he knew straight away that the Grammar school teacher was referring to Trenton, and in a reply email, he asked what it was that he wanted assistance with, but not guaranteeing that he would help.

When James replied, saying that his brother Mitchell, had a short but wonderful relationship with one of the crew members, and they separated to allow this crew member to be able to enter the Navy, the Captain smiled knowing that his nephews’ ex-boyfriend was trying to get back in touch again.

Meanwhile after several emails to work out the finer details, Trenton included several science lessons via satellite video link to the grammar school, with 24 students in each of the three lessons that he presented.

With an extended stay in Cape Town, the Captain now announced that they were ready to head to their next destination of Gough Island, due west of Cape Town, where they would be spending the next six weeks doing similar scientific experiments and data collection as they did on Marion Island, before continuing to their next destination, which is the Falkland Islands.

Soon after leaving Cape Town, Trenton received a private email from James, “I am sending you an attached email, from someone who would really like to get back in touch with you, please don’t be angry with me for wanting to help my brother”.

It was a few days later before Trenton plucked up the courage to read the attached email. “My dear Trent, it has now been 5 years since we separated, so you could do as you wanted to do, and I have regretted letting you leave ever since.

I hope you are well and enjoying your new career. I just wanted to let you know how much I have missed you in all this time, I still think of you every day, and now I know that you are no longer in the Navy.

I also know that you are currently employed by a large private corporation, sailing the open seas of the world, I am hoping that sometime soon we may be able to be together again. Like my brother I have entered the world of education, but as a lecturer in engineering at a small university south of Perth.

I graduated with honours in engineering and mathematics, and I completed a master’s degree last year. I have not had another relationship since you left, although I have tried several times, but I feel we are toowell matched and maybe that is what causes any attempts to fail.

I’m sorry that I have used my brother to get back in contact with you, when he mentioned to me at dinner one night that he was working on a project with a brilliant young man on private corporation research vessel, and when he mentioned your name, my heart stopped beating a number of times, knowing that I had finally found my true love again.

Please write back, I am looking forward to hearing about everything you are doing, even thou James does that anyway, but I assure you anything that he tells me has not been repeated to anyone at all, with love and best wishes always, Mitch.”

Trenton stared at the email for what seemed like hours, but was only about ten minutes, then he hit the button to write a reply. “Dear Mitch. Yes, it is good to hear from you again, I too have missed you, but tried not to let it interfere with my very busy work schedule, tell your brother I forgive him for organising getting your email to me, I didn’t want to talk to him about personal matters when we were working, so that is why I didn’t mention anything in previous emails.

I have had quite an emotional week this past week, with James passing on your best wishes, and learning who my real father is, and that he and the rest of the family have suspected that I am gay all along and are happy with it.

I had to take a few days off to get my head around everything, and I ended up having a long private chat with the Captain of the vessel, who is also my uncle via marriage. If your brother has been keeping you informed with the corporation I work, for and you saw the newspaper article recently, then I guess you know my rough where-a-bouts.

We have just left port after a resupply stop, and we are continuing to another very remote location due west of where we were in port, with an estimated arrival of a week, and we will be there for 6 weeks. After that we will be heading south west to another group of islands, which are well known because of a war that happened in the 1980’s.

If you can get there in about 9-weeks’ time, I would love to spend some time with you, just remember to pack some long johns, even with it being early summer by then, it still gets cold.

Take care, with kindest regards, Trenton”. Trenton read through what he had written several times. before pressing the send button, and he closed the lap top and went back to the office to do some more work.

When Trenton returned to his cabin after a full day of work in the office and in the labs, he found a note sitting on his desk. “Trent, please join me and your Aunt Natalia from dinner in my quarters on the bridge deck at 1930 hours. Uncle Jonah”.