Skip to main content

The Starship Aprilis: The Qastas

Yes, I must admit that I haven’t the will to take finger to tablet and write more about my experiences here on this ship since… well, you know. Her.

But enough of sulking like a love-struck teenaged boy. Am I not traversing through one of life’s wonders, the vastness of space itself?

As it so happens, we have still not reached Zubanaljanubiyy. In fact we are nowhere near even one tenth of the way there. That is just how vast space can be at times.

Not much has happened and the only exciting moment we have had was when someone had the bright idea of swimming in the water tanks on deck 4. It was all fun and games at first but when Crewman Cadman drowned, things quickly turned sour. Many more would have drowned if not for the three aqua-dwelling crewmembers from Poseidon. They had gills but I wasn’t sure if they were surgical or natural. There just was no doubt that they were good swimmers.

I was intrigued. I decided I wanted to talk to them and find out more. I tried to find a free moment when I could ask one of them down for a drink at the mess, but the chance never seemed to appear.

And then amazingly, while walking down the corridor from my latest shift back to my quarters, I saw one of the Poseidonites… together with a Qastas. I had no idea there were any Qastas on the ship. I knew this was my moment. I seized it.
Labels:

Comments

  1. Anonymous22/4/14 9:11 pm

    I thought I could start here without re-reading the previous installments but I'm lost! Will have to go back to the past and re-read A :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ted Mahsun23/4/14 4:06 pm

      Haha! Totally understandable. Took me a while to remember where I was in the story as well!

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Lesson: Commemorative Covers are Lame.

Well, I got the first day cover that commemorates the 35th anniversary of the establishment diplomatic relations between China and Malaysia that I mentioned a couple of posts ago. Except that it's not a first day cover, it's a commemorative cover, which is a slightly different beast. I guess I should read the news article properly next time! The difference between the two is that first day covers are specially-designed envelopes stuck on with specially-designed stamps, and marked with a specially-designed postmark. A commemorative cover is a specially-designed envelope... and that's it. All in all, it's an unremarkable affair, especially if you're used to well-designed first day covers (not that Malaysian first day covers are well-designed... but I digress). Oh sure, a commemorative cover has a stamp printed right on to it but that's just like an overglorified aerogramme. Lame. On the whole, what a disappointment. I haven't been collecting first day cover...
5 comments
Read more

REVIEW: Confessions of an Old Boy by Kam Raslan

Kam Raslan's right. In the preface for his new book, Confessions of an Old Boy: The Dato' Hamid Adventures he writes that we've known Dato' Hamid all our lives. Seeing as my own dad is an old boy of MCKK, the people I get to meet when he drags me to an Old Boy function and the people he tells me of, reflect the characters found in Kam's book. It really does feel like I've known Dato' Hamid all my life. Dato' Hamid is a civil servant of the Tunku Abdul Rahman generation. He is the sort of person you rarely see nowadays, a fine example of the anachronistic Malay. This generation, groomed in the ways of the colonial British would be out of place not just in 21st century Malaysia, but in Britain too. And yet, Dato' Hamid, in all his snobbishness and patronising ways, is essentially a Malaysian. Without people like him, our country would probably never exist at all. At least not like we know it now. I'm glad that Kam Raslan decided to capture this ...
5 comments
Read more

An Ipoh Ghost Story.

When I was growing up in Ipoh in the 90s, the only good bookshops around were Mubaruk's, which specialised in textbooks (and still does), and Novelhut, the second-hand bookstore that used to be in Yik Foong (and maybe still is there, but I haven't checked in years since I prefer going to their Ipoh Parade outlet when I'm in town). There was also a pretty good bookstore in the Parkson Grand in Ipoh Parade which could have been a Berita outlet, but I don't remember. This was in the days before they expanded Ipoh Parade into what it is today. (And temporarily causing the Convent school next door to consider moving.) I recall this because I was thinking of when exactly I started reading "serious" fiction, trying to pinpoint the years when I moved from young adult/fantasy/sci-fi books into non-genre fiction. I still can't remember, but it brought back memories of a book I bought from a short-lived bookshop in Old Town. Mum had brought me there, because she must...
6 comments
Read more