Psychological Trial

The days followed each other. Jeht's visits to the cell continued daily. He was so used to this situation by now that as soon as he woke up, he would straighten himself up, prepare the miner's dinner and set off. He was bringing him two meals a day so that he could recover. It was still difficult to make him eat, as usual, but easy-to-chew meals made this a little easier. Jeht had noticed that the miner's face had gotten some color in the last few days . Just doing daily maintenance could change a person quite a lot. Except for the toilet though. Jeht had made it clear to Olga that he would absolutely not be interested in this. There was nothing left for Olga to do in this situation. The caregivers usually took care of that part. At least Jeht knew it was. He didn’t dare to question.

“I just did some research…”

Jeht began as he sat next to the miner, who was as still as ever.

“…and I found out that playing a musical instrument is good for the mind.”

He looked at the harmonica in his hand.

“I've only got this one and I'm not very good at playing, but I'll try something. At least you can warn me to stop playing, even if I play badly.”

He hesitated for a moment before bringing it to his lips. He started to play a gentle tune, the notes reverberating softly through the cell.

He closed his eyes. He was trying to relax his own mind while playing the musical instrument. He had never had an interest in musical instruments until now. He had also taken the harmonica from his friend Luka from the division and had asked him to teach him a few pieces. Although Luka's sudden interest in the instrument had caught his attention, Jeht had somehow gotten away with it. After all, almost the entire division knew what Jeht liked and disliked, not just him. Jeht was so famous that it wasn't something he was proud of.

After playing for a while, he stopped to catch his breath. He realized that he needed more breathing power than he thought. He looked at the miner for a moment out of the corner of his eye as he took a deep breath. As soon as the miner entered his sight, his breath stopped for a moment.

The miner was peeking at him.

Noticing him, he had withdrawn her gaze, but as a result, he was staring.

“No fucking way .”

Jeht sprang to his feet and faced the miner.

"You were looking at me, weren't you?"

He lifted the miner's head with great hope. Unlike before, the miner had returned to his old, soulless state, but Jeht was fairly certain of what he had seen.

“You were looking at me. I'm sure of that. You were looking at me!”

He shook the miner lightly.

“Why are you acting like nothing happened now?”

He was disappointed. He thought the problem was with the miner, but was it actually him? Is that why he wasn't talking? Did he see her as a strange person too? His face fell.

“Am I the problem here?”

At that moment, Dr. Here's what Zara said.

"Start with patience. Spend time with him, be consistent in your visits, and show him that you genuinely care . Sometimes, it takes time for wounds to heal and for trust to be built."

He removed his hands from the miner. He shouldn't have come to a conclusion right away. Situations like these weren’t so easily resolved. He knew that too. Also, maybe he had misunderstood. Maybe he dreamed of something like this because he wanted the miner to react to him so badly. It was his own fault for jumping to conclusions. He had done it again.

"I am sorry."

He pocketed the harmonica and stood up and walked away from the miner. He needed some fresh air. If you can call it clean, of course.

He arrived at the epicenter and slumped into one of the chairs in front of the door. He looked at the real sky beyond the artificial atmosphere layer. Due to the rupture in the atmosphere, the stars in the part of the space where the vacuum was visible were shining together with the sun. Meteorites falling to earth from the ruptured void, in Jeht's words, made a marvelous sight. Jeht loved watching this image. It was the most effective of his methods of calming down. He would prefer to watch this scene in an empty space of his own, but since they didn’t give him this opportunity, he had to watch it on the chairs here. He agreed to that, though. He considered himself lucky compared to people who had never seen the sky in their life.

"Don't you have someone to spy on?"

Jeht turned his head when he heard a familiar voice. Samira was coming towards him.

“I'm not a security camera after all. Sometimes I feel like watching other things.”

"So you're depressed."

She pulled up a chair and sat across from Jeht.

Samira was a soldier from the same division as Jeht. They had been assigned to the division at the same time as Jeht and had known each other ever since. They had spent so long together that they could understand each other's problems just by looking at them. It is just that since Jeht preferred to solve his problems by distraction and Samira preferred to solve them by talking, the ways of helping were a little different.

“Did you hear what happened today?” Samira asked, just as she had time to clear Jeht's head. Jeht shook his head to indicate that he hadn’t heard.

“They sent a messenger from Sirius. They wanted to propose a new agreement for the mines to become partners.”

"And the result?"

"Same. There is no agreement, we only have the rights to the mines.”

“They never give up.”

Samira lit a cigarette as Jeht sighed.

“In case a great war breaks out and they send us to death one day, we have to live life to the fullest.”

She blew the cigarette smoke she had inhaled into the air. His blond hair, cut like a men's shave, waved slightly.

“This goes for you too.”

Jeht understood what she meant. Orion's possession of the mines made them both a very wealthy country and a great threat. Sirius had been wanting to make a deal with Orion for years and take half of the rights to the mines. They were so insistent on this issue that they were constantly sending emissaries to Orion and presenting a new offer. In response, Orion kept giving the same answer. It was everyone's expectation that at some point Sirius would attempt something more serious. In such a situation, it was up to all soldiers, including Jeht, to guard the mines.

“I wish I could just disappear.” said Jeht in a low voice. Whenever he and Samira got into a conversation, he always found himself saying that sentence. Samira was used to it by now.

"Live your life." she repeated. “The world is out of joint. At least we can be happy in our last moments.”

She put out his cigarette and stood up. She had to return to work.

“By the way…"

Just before she walked in, she turned her head to look at Jeht.

“I think a pet would do more. Preferably a rabbit. Because they're so cute."

After saying that, she entered without waiting for Jeht's reply.