Scenes From Space

Chapter Twenty-Three: Ganfer Five

"Wait, Graham! You're sending us to find some obscure tech on Ganfer Five?" I asked with a huge smile on my face.

"Yeah, why?"

"And Poku is handling things and I just get to wander around?" I asked.

"Okay, am I missing something?" Graham asked. My cheeks started to hurt with how wide my smile got.

Graham looked me up and down. "I don't trust that look. I'm going to tag along."

"Yeah, Guinevere, what's going on with your face?" Ben asked.

"Earth stuff. Ganfer Five has so much Earth stuff," I answered with glee.

"There's no way you can be trusted," Graham said.

"So, yeah, guest quarters on the RAFO are yours," Ben said.

Graham had put his stuff away in the guest room before coming to find me. He entered my room and lounged back on my bed palette like it was natural for him. The metal of his arm shined in contrast against my blankets.

"You know, there's been a real lack of trust in me recently and I'm offended," I said. Offended but understanding, I did sleep with the enemy. 

"Counter point, I wanted to spend time with you and this was just an excuse," Graham offered up. My face pinched inward with surprise and I reeled back. Graham looked amused. His blue eyes sparkled and I could see a mini-golf fountain in them.

"You miss me or something?" I asked with a smile. Mini-golf. Maybe they'd have mini-golf on this Swap Moon full of Earth stuff.

"Yes," Graham responded simply. "Also, I don't get your whole thing about Earth stuff. You know that you don't live there anymore, right?"

"There could be new music," I was really building myself up for the potential. I was probably going to be let down.

"I also don't get your love Earth music, that stuff we heard at Amber's wasn't great," Graham said.

Ugh. Space people. They just didn't get it. I glared at him, just a little. Graham sat up as my door slid open.

"Captain," I greeted.

"They're setting up the projector for a movie night if you guys want in on that," Ben announced. He had a cautious look on his face.

"Sure," Graham said with a shrug. I shrugged as well.

"Guinevere," Ben started. "Can we have a quick talk?" I shrugged again and Graham left with a quick wave. My door slid shut with a hiss and click behind him.

"Just confirming my suspicions that you didn't tell our handler about Kuzzon?" Ben asked.

"Confirmed."

Ben sighed and I couldn't tell if it was relief or exasperation.

"Can I ask why you haven't? I mean I told you to tell Graham," Ben said and it felt like exasperation.

"Well, I just figure that it hasn't become like an actual issue yet so I'm going to wait till it is," I said with another shrug because that's a thing my shoulders did now. Ben gripped the bridge of his nose.

"It's just as much for you as it is for me," I said and looked away.

"I don't know if I should be relieved or not," Ben said quickly.

"Go with relieved; it's more fun," I adopted a sing-song tone and I smiled really big at him. Ben snorted.

"You are either the worst rebel specialist agent or the best."

"Go with the best." I pat Ben on the shoulder and walked past him to my door. "It's more fun." Ben groaned and followed me down to the hangar where the crew has set up chairs and the projector for a film.

Ganfer Five was a small moon with a large sprawling space mall on the surface. The moon itself looked pretty similar to Earth's with it's grey dirt and craters. Of course, Earth's moon didn't have the Mall of America on it, or in this case what translated to The Mall of Several Worlds. It was awesome. No one else really seemed to be excited about it.

We landed on a tower platform. A shield came up the ship and the mall pumped oxygen up so that we could get off the ship without helmets.

On the elevator ride down the tower Ben said, "We'll find the part. Guinevere, Graham, stay out of trouble."

"Right back at ya, Capt'n," I responded.

There was a hologram map in the entry to the mall. If you told it what you wanted to buy, the hologram lit up with the various routes you could take to different stores. I grabbed Graham's hand and pulled him to the escalator. We went down two floors and walked down a long green hallway. Once the hallway turned grey, the Earth stores began. There was a non-perishable food store, followed by an Eastern Religions store, followed by army surplus, and then music.

"What are you even looking for?" Graham asked. "The hell kind of device even plays this thing?" He was holding up the Beatles White Album on Vinyl.

"Skip over those and the smaller silver circles," I instructed. "I am looking for converted data packs.

"Data packs with what?" Graham asked.

"Look for anything that says punk, emo, classic rock," I said as we approached crates full of black shiny data packs. "If anything says My Chemical Romance, I will cry tears of joy."

"You're so weird," Graham said. But he knelt down in front of the crate next to mine and started digging.

"You gotta have something that makes you this happy," I said. "Ben really digs this series of comics. Literally light up when a new one comes out. For me it's certain types of Earth music and Earth beer, particularly I.P.As."

I pulled out a drive that had 5 Seconds of Summer, All Time Low, blackbear, others hastily scribbled on what looked like scotch tape. I set the data pack in my keep pile. I pulled out another that was labeled 'America, Kansas, Styx, Others' and put it in my keep pile as well, for my dad.

"Fruit pies," Graham whispered. I looked over with a raised eyebrow. There was a small frown on his face. I didn't know if that meant he was ashamed of that answer or if there was a sad story behind it.

"Well, lets see if there's a bakery in this massive intergalactic mall next," I said. Graham smiled at me before turning back to his crate.

We found a bakery next. Graham ate three pieces of pie. I stole a few nibbles here and there. I could almost pretend that the 'Ng inspired spice pie was apple. Almost.

We walked past a bookstore and I made Graham wait while I picked up the new comic for that series Ben liked. I picked a hair mask for Boo. For Grey, I grabbed a small cannon like toy. It fired holo-shots at targets. Poku got a series of frames. He took photos of planets and his room was full of them. Danyl and Mako got a movie that they had been talking about recently.

"So we're just buying gifts for everyone," Graham had commented.

I shrugged. "I got to go shopping for myself. Ben and Poku are a mission. Boo, Danyl, and Mako are stuck on the ship. I'm really happy. These little things should make them happy too."

"This is how you show people you care, isn't it?" Graham asked with a smile.

"Yeah, I guess," I responded.

"You bought me pie earlier because you care," Graham summarized.

"Well, yeah," I said. I had thought that was obvious. Graham smiled a soft little quirk of his lips and helped me carry the purchases back to the ship.