. . .
. . .
Christine Heart, Rachel’s mother would admit that she and Edward, her husband, were perhaps not always the most attentive parents to Rachel, but one would be hard pressed referring to them as bad parents. They did their best by Rachel and no one could dispute that, not even Rachel herself. They sent her to the best school, gave her the best possible start at life, provided her with everything her heart could possibly desire and more. She was well travelled, given a car and waited on, hand and foot. This was a young woman who had grown up without a worry in the world, everything she could possibly want or need was provided for her, so her daughter’s recent arguments and choices in life were bemusing to say the least.
Christine herself knew she was far from perfect, she certainly had her own flaws and her relationship with her husband had seen better days, but they were at the very least trying to work things out, improve it little by little, day by day. She loved him still, her heart hadn’t wavered there, but she only wished she saw more of him on a daily basis, he was always working and whenever he returned home, he was too exhausted to partake in any family related activities. It was a guilty admission, given how much she appreciated his efforts to help keep a house over their heads, but it made her feel incredibly lonely.
This wasn’t the extent of their relationship when they got married, they could barely keep their hands off of each other, fast forward twenty odd years and she would be so lucky to even exchange a glance that lasted longer than a few seconds with him. Christine didn’t want to admit it, but maybe that had had an effect on their relationship with their daughter, there was the strong possibility that the unhealthy dynamic of their household relationship had contributed to why she had rebelled and taken on this faze.
Christine could only pray that that was all it was, a faze, because God forbid, if her one and only daughter had convinced herself that this perverted behaviour was the norm, it would break her, she simply couldn’t fathom the notion that her only daughter had chosen this sinful path.
In hindsight, maybe sending her to that all girls school wasn’t the best idea, for where other girls had the mental strength to overcome irrational curious feelings, her daughter clearly didn’t, subjugating herself to a distasteful immoral lifestyle that would only end in misery.
The facts spoke for themselves after all and no matter how her daughter try as she might to convince her that this lifestyle was the right one for her, Christine would never accept it, she had done the research herself. Fact one, homosexuals were not born homosexual and there is no credible evidence to prove it so, this was a fundamentally flawed way of thinking and would negate the biological function of the different sexes. Fact two, the ideal that ten percent or more of any one population was homosexual is bullshit to say the least; homosexuality stemmed from a pushed agenda and misguided perceptions on reality. Fact three, homosexual relationships were not in any way similar to heterosexual ones, homosexual relationships are not constructed on the foundations of monogamy, and they wouldn’t even understand the principles of the word. Fact four, homosexuals were more susceptible to sexually transmitted diseases, why else the pandemic of aids, gonorrhoea and other STDs? Fact five, contrary to popular belief, homosexuals were not as happy as they would lead all to believe, they are experiencing what could be considered a psychological downturn, indicative of past dilemmas and in Rachel’s case, quite possibly the trauma of her parent’s waning feelings towards each other and being sent to an all girls boarding school. Fact six, female relationships of those types were no less unhealthy than males and that’s because facts demonstrated that two thirds of women still had sex with males, therefore transmitting diseases back and forth, not only that, studies showed that women in these illicit relationships are also more susceptible to breast and ovarian cancer. The biggest and final fact is that homosexuals are not lost, they could be helped, in the same way criminals could be reformed and those with psychological defects and deficits could be helped, because that is exactly what homosexuality is after all, a psychological defect, nothing more, nothing less.
Although Christine had carried out the extensive research, she had no idea how she planned to resolve this. Her daughter no longer lived with them and any attempts to bring it up in the past had only resulted in an argument and her daughter storming out before the end of the discussion. She was immature, that was obvious, she didn’t know what she wanted and her naivety was as clear as day. Sooner or later she would wake up lonely, childless, aimless and realise what a complete mess she had made of her life.
Christine wanted nothing but the best for her daughter, why couldn’t Rachel simply understand that this wasn’t out of spite, it was all purely for the sake of love. She herself had had a very strict and somewhat unloved upbringing, so all she had ever wanted was to offer her daughter the lifestyle not afforded to herself.
Following Rachel and her girlfriend, Christine, her husband and her eighty-six year old mother were greeted just before entry to the ship by several of the ship’s staff. They were all very immaculately dressed, polished shoes, waistcoats and ties, even the women.
The grand spectacle of the ship defied expectation, leaving her in a state of awe, awe enough even to temporarily quell her irritation at watching her daughter and her test subject promoting their shameful public indecency, clinging onto each other like that.
The interior of the ship
