After providing some more general information concerning the interception of Xinglong,
Hao took his leave from the briefing room with a warning to us all
about maintaining secrecy. Peter Bevin, colonel of His Majesty's Armed
Forces and commander of the CERU's military contingent, released the
civilian group from the briefing - me included - after issuing a
similar warning. I'm quick to heed such warnings, because under the
circumstances no one want to know what is floating about in my head. My
shift was almost over anyways so I kicked off from the ceiling and was
on my way of the room before I did anything unsightly or embarrassing
such as clawing my eyes out or screaming until I shredded my vocal
chords. That kind of thing. I brushed past Hao in the outer hatch and
then I was out in the corridor and into High Plymouth proper.
Beyond the Blue Skies and High Hearts have gotten it
laughably wrong about space stations. Oh how roomy, how clean and how
silent they are in those wonderful shows! I pulled myself through a
corridor that was so narrow I that could reach out and touch both sides
at once. Every flat surface that could be put to use had a locker,
potted plant, airlock, terminal, pinned-up screen or even a hammock.
And there is people too. I had to move against the flow of workers
coming from a shift change aboard the Marius and in the space
of ten minutes I had every conceivable sweaty, dirty body part shoved
into my face as we squeezed past each other in intersections that could
barely fit a child, let alone two adults. We each made rote apologies,
but I can barely notice them above the perpetual droning of the air
conditioner and the gibbering in my head, so I just kept moving.
Alisa was floating free inside our closet, brushing her black hair out and listening to tinny music through headphones as Simon Marius
hung silhouetted in space through the porthole behind her. The merest
hint of a smile started and faltered below those bright green eyes as
they took in the the wrack of my face.
"Jason?"
I shook my head and said only, "it's...work."
Alisa didn't say anything more. She just grabbed me, held on and never let go.
It's three hours later when I wake up to the discovery that Alisa and I
are still twined together. Alisa's face peeks through a floating nimbus
of raven black hair as she stirs in her sleep and pulls herself tighter
against my bare chest. I put one arm around her back to support her as
I pull myself over to our cabin's tiny porthole and spend a few minutes
watching UNSS Simon Marius in it's dock. Dry facts about Marius crowd through my head, but raw information falls short when the sum of it's parts is filling the sky above you. Marius
is truly massive, fully provisioned, he will be able to carry upward of
two hundred passengers and crew on a five years expedition to the
Jupiter system. Both the gas giant itself and the moons, including the
water-world Europa will be explored. Even as this goes through my head,
HLSV Bonnie Brae sails into view from behind the station with
the mission's submersibles attached to it's hulls like great leeches.
The great automated freighter has been orbiting the station for months
with dive equipment, and it might be another year before they're
offloaded.
Alisa and I have everything intention and hope of being aboard Marius
when he leaves, although that might not be for another decade. The
barest skeleton of a flight crew has been chosen, and many openings in
lower positions are still open. Alisa and I are following different
paths on the same road: She is working aboard the ship under contract
as an integration expert and I'm employed by CERU as flight operations
manager aboard Hau To, one of our two cutters. I relax as I watch the light shift across Simon Marius' hull
through the course of our orbit. Between the cloudy dusk above Ireland
to the spectacular breaking dawn over Auckland, shadows crawl across
the framework and bright flood lights come on to illuminate the
shadows. Scooters with tethered workers and equipment flit between High
Plymouth and Marius' great berth. Welding torches flare up and wink out endlessly as the docking clamps for Simon Marius'
in-system shuttles are connected. Alisa will be out there in a few
hours, connecting the clamps to the spaceship's infrastructure through
the black magiks of Cabling and Software.
Finally I realise that Alisa's breathing has changed and I look down to find that she's watching Marius, too. She smiles up at me, "Hey, Green. Six months."
I
nod at this and say, "aye, less, if I'm lucky. Something's coming
through work that could put me at the head of the queue, if it goes
well." I shrug as best I can. "If it doesn't, I won't be." I squeeze
her shoulder.
Alisa pushes off from me to the other a handhold at
the other end of our cabin and her lithe figure regards me from among a
wall covered in tacked up photos and mementos a metre and a half away.
Grigorev's green eyes glint angrily as she demands of me, "you've
denounced your church, your family, your country. What do you believe
in? Me? Am I out there with you?" Alisa waves her hand towards
the porthole for emphasis and then jabs me in the chest. "Nyet! Believe
in yourself or you have nothing...you are nothing."
"Alisa,
I...," I try and reply before Alisa cuts me off. "Shut up! I will
comfort you and I will support you, but I am not, and will never be,
the pillar which you stand on."
I subside as Alisa gathers up
her overalls from around the cabin and begins to get dressed. "Look at
me, Greenie," Alisa demands as she pulls on her panties. "I love you,
you love me, yes? Do you think I pray to you when I work this far..."
Alisa holds her thumb and forefinger up, a little apart. "...this far
from naked power cables. Nyet. You do things that frighten me without blinking. Do you trust your training, your instincts and your experience?"
"Yes, absolutely," I reply.
A small mouth purses judiciously for a moment as she measures this statement. "Good."
Alisa
zips up her coveralls and grants me a hug before she pulls open the
hatch from our quarters - and until recently a spacesuit locker. "I'll
see you after my shift," she calls back over her shoulder, and
then she is gone.
Short Stories 
