Scenes From Space

Chapter Fifteen: Back Aboard

The RAFO was hidden on the edge of a weird belt of fluctuating radiation from a star. The radiation readings would hide the ship's signal from any snooping scans of the area. The runner docked and we boarded after a decontamination wave treatment to make sure the radiation didn't breach the runner or us.

Boo was waiting. She jumped up and down, her hair flashing a rainbow before she hugged me.

"It's good to see you!" Boo sang. "We missed you!" It was good to be back. I breathed in deeply and felt my body decompress.

"Good to see you too," I responded, arms still wrapped around Boo's torso. "I'm glad to be back." Ben came over and put a hand on Boo's shoulder. She immediately let me go.

"Guinevere needs to go to medical, you can catch up later," Ben said softly.

"Right, of course," Boo agreed. "I'll go start some tea." Ben let his hand fall back down as Boo scurried off. I started up the stairs, out of the cargo hold, to Mako's office. Ben followed silently.

Mako stood up from his chair when the door to medical slid open.

"Hello, Guinevere," he greeted. A smile in my direction flashed a little fang. I stumbled forward into the lean-back chair.

"Hey, Mako," I greeted back. Mako waved the Captain away. He stood in the door until I nodded at him.

"I see your ankle is bleeding. Is there anything else?"

"Can you take a look at my shoulder?" I asked. Mako pulled out his scanner and ran it over.

"Deeply bruised," he said after the scanner beeped. Mako went and grabbed a rolling cart, a regen tunnel, and a hand-held regen. The cart and tunnel were set up for my ankle. I slid my foot through the tunnel and treatment started. Mako directed me to lean forward so he could work on my shoulder.

"Are you okay, mentally?" Mako asked.

I took a breath. "Yeah, actually, I think I'm better than I was before," I confessed. Maybe it was the proof of my fighting skills, or Graham and I's beach conversation. Maybe it was just the passage of time. I felt lighter. Maybe it was just the endorphins fading out from the mission. But, I felt better. The tunnel beeped three times and the light flickered off. Mako rolled the cart away. My ankle was good as new.

Mako came back around and poked my shoulder. I yelped. Shit, that hurt. 

"Hmm, clean up, change, and come back for a second round," he instructed. I nodded and went back to my room. My room was a sight for sore eye. I let out a little laugh at my own joke, at my own expense, because I only had one eye.

I ran a finger over the leaves of my blue ivy plant. They were turned down a little. I touched the dirt. It was just a touch dry. I quickly watered all the plants before taking off the green lingerie.

The shower was heavenly. The hair dryer setting was calibrated just the way I liked it. I stepped out of the shower unit a new woman. I pulled my hair back and secured it with an elastic band. I was back to the woman I usually was. I pulled on a loose tank top, leggings, and boots before heading back to Mako. He did another treatment with the hand held regen and sent me away. I quickly retrieved the tech-mask from the runner and stashed it in my room before I headed to the kitchen.

Boo hugged me again and poured me a cup of tea. It was the same chai-tasting tea from the cycle before I left. I breathed in the scent of warm, winter spices and smiled.

"Thanks, Boo," I sighed.

"You're welcome, now tell me everything," she commanded. "I want to know everything that happened while you were gone."

"She actually needs to debrief before gossiping with you," the Captain chimed in from the entrance to the kitchen. He was leaning in the doorway with a fond smile on his face. It looked like he had taken the time to sort himself out as well. He was wearing a fresh shirt. This one was black and the sleeves were rolled up to his elbows. His hair was freshly gelled back, the grey strands gleaming like mercury with the product he'd put in.

"I thought we were debriefing on ic'zing," I said.

"Change of plans. Commander Exandar wants a report as soon as possible so we can develop a plan when we get back to base," Ben explained. I nodded, topped off my cup of tea, and followed Ben to his quarters. 

Ben's room was barren. The only thing personal that I could see was a framed picture of him and his Mom sitting on his desk. His data pads and tablets were all unlabeled. His bedspread was blue. Just plain old blue. I sat down in the spare chair by his desk while he sat down at his desk and pulled out a tablet. He opened the holo-keyboard and gestured for me to start.

I quickly summarized the first eight sun-cycles as there had already been reports for those days. I went into more detail about the fight with Dameryn and ended my narration to Ben by telling him that I left the cloned data in the possession of Graham.

"We good?" I asked Ben, suddenly emotionally exhausted.

"Are you good?" Ben asked back. The question was soft but an eyebrow was raised. I nodded and gave a small smile.

"Dismissed," Ben said. I held in a heavy sigh until Ben's door closed behind me. I walked back to the kitchen with every intention of catching up with Boo. She had her back turned to the doorway and was stationed at the stove humming lightly to herself. I walked away.

I sat down at my desk and began to fiddle with the wires of the Earth USB and the Waseatryn battery. My tea was still warm in the cup but I ignored it. I followed the instructions of Amber's guy on Kir'ee. There were four Earth wires, a red voltage, a white data transfer, a green data transfer and a black grounding. The Waseatryn wires were blue for voltage, yellow for data, yellow for data, and red for grounding. I wove the wires together and used wire tape to secure everything. I plugged my phone in and set the screen side down. I couldn't stand to see if it worked or not.

I turned off the tech-eye and curled up into my bed and napped until Grey shouted through my door to get my ass out here. I stumbled into shoes and out the door where the rest of the crew was waiting.

"Sorry, sorry, very sorry," I said while tightening the strings on my boots, with one hand, and grasping a sweater in the other.