Vivi

XX

The next few hours on the phone were a blur. Vivi hadn't known she was capable of crying that much. She cried so much she became thirsty and had to go down to the boat to drink. All she had was fancy cola.

To Peter Vivi just said, "I love you, I'm sorry, I'm so overwhelmed, is it okay if I just talk to Celine for now?"

Peter said, "It's okay, of course, I love you."

All Celine did was listen, listen, listen. Every so often, after sharing something particularly vulnerable, Vivi had the presence of mind to check with Celine if she thought Vivi was crazy or irresponsible. All Celine ever said was, "No, I love you, I just want to be here for you right now."

When Vivi was done crying, and had stayed on the line in silence for about five minutes, watching the stars seem to spin around above her, Celine revealed that she and Peter were in LA.

"What? Why?"

"It's the nearest spaceport," said Celine.

That took a bit of work to understand. It wasn't like space travel was a regular thing for anyone, really. But there were a handful of space hotels to choose from for the very rich, and the media blitz around Vivi's exploits had given the auction of her recent sculptures a very healthy boost. There was enough for a night in the Ritz-Carlton.

"Could you come pick me up from there?"

Stunned, it took some time for Vivi to get her brain working and think to ask her navigation computer to work out a route.

It turned out that it was, indeed, feasible.

The Ritz was in a higher orbit, so it'd take a few days to get up there on solar power alone. Instead, after working out the details with Celine, Vivi sailed back to the Palace to refuel and pick up some sandwiches.

Shockwave narrowed his eyes as Vivi rushed back and forth. "What's got into you?" he asked.

"I've got to go pick up my girlfriend from a space hotel," said Vivi, without pausing to hear Shockwave's reply.

And then Vivi was on her way. She felt a rush of freedom and hope as she sailed the sunlight up, up and higher still, her rockets adding a steady boost the whole time.

It's not as if the Orbital Ritz-Carlton had a reception hall you could just stroll into. Negotiating on the phone with the employees to have them even consider the problem of how to let Vivi dock was frustrating as hell. It was only when Vivi broke down crying that things started to shift. "I'm not mad, my spaceship is completely functional, I'm right here, I'm waving at some of you right now, all I want is to see my girlfriend, please?"

Somehow it worked. In the end, what were they going to do? They had to find a way.

And the two of them were out, and they were sailing the stars together, and Celine was staring at her with big doe eyes and it turned out that they were wearing the only spacesuits ever invented which made it possible to kiss.