Scenes From Space

Chapter Thirty-Four: A Talk with Ben

The debrief passed with little fanfare. The Commander and most of the RAFO crew filed out, leaving Ben sitting across from the table from Graham and I. Ben had his arms crossed in front of him and a sour tilt to his lips and eyes.

"So, Guinevere, you moved on from the Prince of the regime we're actively trying to dismantle to our unit's handler?" Ben summarized. He was right, but his tone and expression weren't fair. There seemed to be a lot of judgment and implying that all my decisions were bad ones.

"Benjamin, lighten up a bit," Graham said. I looked back and forth between the scowls of the two men who had the most say in my life and, shit I hated that thought. Did I have control of my life at all? I tapped my fingers on the table. It had been cleaned before the meeting so my fingerprints remained in oily imprints on the table.

"How long has this been going on?" Ben asked.

"When we got back to the base after that Gala," I answered. I looked down at the smudges I left on the table and then pulled away to lean back in my chair.

"And you both know what you're doing?" Ben asked. His tone had changed slightly. It wasn't just bitter, there was some concern in there.

"Yeah," Graham answered. "Of course."

"No, never," I shot back at Ben. "But it's been really good. It's working." I saw Graham give a small smile down to the table.

"Are we done now?" Graham asked Ben. "I'd like to take Gwen to medical." I looked back and forth between the guys again. There was still unresolved tension in the room. I bit down on my lip, but didn't say anything. Ben waved us both away. Graham escorted me out of the room with a light hand on my lower back. He dropped it when we were in the hallway.

Graham sat in a chair across from me in medical and as the doctor ran another treatment over my shoulder and hand. There was a smile back on his face. I had just finished telling him about Boo and I's first day off. We were on a small moon, in a spa. Boo was paying for all the kidnapping skin and hair to be washed away. Which was a great idea until we found out about the slave girls being kept in the back for special services, and well, we were drunk. Very much so. We spilled one of the bottles of alcohol we were drinking and set the spill on fire before sneaking the girls out and onto the runner where Ben and Danyl were very surprised to see us and with two almost naked girls. Ben's exact words upon getting us back to the ship were, 'Un-fucking-believable! I'm very proud. You're both in so much trouble. This isn't how we do things. We need clearance and planning, and very well done.'

"Jesus, why'd you tell me that story?" Graham asked.

"Your question was how I and why I got along with all of the crew, right?" I confirmed. Graham nodded. "We have history, similar interests and values. That was really the first time I felt good about being in space. I got drunk, started a fire, made a friend, and freed two human women."

"Do you have stories like that with all of the crew?" Graham asked.

"Yeah," I said with a smile and started in on the story of the first time I drank with Ben.

***

"Haaaaayyyyyy," Ben called out after the door to my room had swished open. "Gweeeennn-i-veeeere, how are you settling in?" It was obvious that Captain Benjamin Barnes was drunk. My smile went very wide. This was a side of the Captain that I hadn't seen yet.

"Uh, good," I lied. I still was not dealing with everything that happened to me and things were shit.

"Have you tried alcohol?" Benjamin asked.