Scenes From Space

Chapter Twenty-One: A Debrief and Down Time

"Ben!" I cheered as he stumbled onto the bridge. "You're late for debrief, where you been?" Ben looked at me like he was suddenly very concerned. Graham chuckled over the call. Ben appeared to be unhurt but his clothes were marred by the dirt from Hobermant.

"What happened to you?" Ben asked. "I thought you were with Poku, and not hurt."

"Gwen, here was getting to that part in her report," Graham said. "Why don't you join us?" Ben took a seat.

"So, I had finished escorting all the slaves from the cells. And I heard crying, so I went further into the facility and there were children locked up. Two kids. So sad. Anyways, just a small error in timing, I protected the kids from the blast and got just the itties-bittiest little concussion but Mako gave me that fun shot, so it's all good," I half slurred, half over enunciated. My shoulders did a thing that could probably be considered a drunk shimmy. 

"Well, good work saving children, bad job not getting hurt," Graham sighed. "You should go get some rest, sleep off the concussion protocol."

"I wanna know what happened to Sir Benjamin over here, first," I pouted. Graham gestured for Ben to start.

"There's not much to say. After the explosions went off, I was making my way back through town to collect the last of our things but Kuzzon stopped me outside the boarding house," Ben said.

I interrupted, "How was he? Hot?"

"What?" Ben said with a look of great concern on his face.

"What?" Graham repeated.

"What?... Sorry, ignore me, and everything I have said from like 30 minutes ago up till I'm no longer drugged," I apologized. "I'm just going to dismiss myself here." I made an awkward gesture with my thumb towards the door and skedaddled off the bridge. Yikes.

I woke up the next cycle feeling good as new. At the breakfast meeting, Ben told us that both cargo ships had auto-piloted, and made it to the safe houses. The even better news was that we were cleared for down time on a planet before reporting back to base. We were set to arrive on the planet Oy-Oz in a quarter-cycle. We were all to stay with our assigned buddies but free to do whatever while we were planet-side for two cycles. I looked over at Boo and she nodded back.

"Dibs on Boo," I cheered. "We're going to get drunk and go shopping." I smiled really big.

"You can still get drunk and go shopping but you're with me," Ben responded and I pouted immediately.

"But, Captain," Boo wined and her hair turned blue. "Girl time."

"Girls who get concussions on missions don't get girl time," Ben said. "They get babysat. Everyone go get ready."

"Ben?" I said. It might have sounded a little whiny. 

"Decision's been made, Guinevere," Ben said. I groaned but went to take a shower and get ready.

We landed on Oy-Oz in a tropical settlement. Boo frowned sadly and waved goodbye at me as Danyl pulled her away for a hike. I waved back.

"You said drinks and shopping?" Ben asked. He had his hands in his pockets and a small smile on his face.

"I did," I sighed. We left the ship parked in the water dock and the boardwalk to shore. I stopped at the first bar I saw. Various species were all gathered outside, drinking intriguing looking things out of various fruits. Ben ordered for me and paid for the drink, probably as an apology. I frowned at him.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to infringe on your girl time," Ben said.

I waited. The drinks arrived. The liquid was orange and the fruit was a red carved out melon thing. "Is there an explanation coming?" I asked and took a slurp through the straw. The drink was very sugary. I took another sip.