Pandora: Liminal Space Book 2

Chapter Twenty-Seven

"You cut your hair," Jonah said at last.

The non-sequiter threw Garrett. "Yes. When the environmental controls were offline."

"I saw you then."

"Where?"

"Skin room on the top floor. I didn't know it was you," he added when he saw Garrett's eyes narrow. "Cody and I could just see your back. You seemed kinda into whatever you were doing, so we found another place to look at the stars."

"I can't believe you're Cody's dad. He told me all about how wonderful and perfect and protective you are."

Jonah winced again. "He mentioned your name, but I didn't think it was actually you. You had a private ship; I took you for a private contractor. Never reckoned you'd be joining the expedition to Pandora."

"I am a private contractor," Garrett said, "in the science lab. For the next three years, at any rate. Keeping the ship was part of my contract. I haven't really joined the expedition."

"Huh." A little of the warmth seemed to leave Jonah's face. "Well, that figures. You sure as hell aren't a natural."

"Neither are you. What's a drifter doing heading into the Fringe with a group of colonists? Why aren't you off on your own ship somewhere?"

Jonah's lips thinned. "My boy's a natural. Couldn't keep him healthy on board a ship, not with all the places we stopped. He needs a real home, some place he can have a real life. I heard about Olympus' call for colonists and signed on as a pilot."

"Oh." That made sense. Still... "It must have hurt to leave your family behind." Drifter clans stayed tight for generations, the entire extended family living on a ship that added on more space as more children were born.

"Nothing's more important than Cody."

Why did that sound so...final? Garrett decided to let go of his irritation and lighten the mood. "I still owe you a cup of coffee, you know."

"You don't owe me a damn thing."

Garrett frowned. "Why so vehement?"

"Because I know where you're headed, and the answer's no."

Well, fuck. Way to cut through the small talk. "No, you won't have coffee with me, or no we won't be sleeping together again?"

"Both," Jonah said firmly. "Don't get me wrong, that night was damn fine and you're more than just easy on the eyes, but I'm not gonna be bringin' someone home for a casual thing, and I won't be passing my son's care off to other people just so I can go and get some action on the side. It's just me and Cody now and he's my priority."

"Cody likes me," Garrett pointed out.

"'Course he does, you were sweet to him and you're a nice guy," Jonah said with an easy shrug. "Thanks for helping him out when I couldn't be here."

"My pleasure," Garrett muttered. "I still don't understand why you don't want to see me again, though. What we did was really, really..." fucking amazing incredible wonderful perfect, "nice."

"I know. But that's not the point." Jonah shook his head. "I'm not looking for a relationship right now, 'specially not with someone who isn't going to settle on Pandora. I shouldn't even have had that one night, really, but it had been a long time for me and you, well, you're pretty irresistible." He smiled a familiar half smile, and Garrett's stomach clenched again.

"Why not get together for something we could all do?" Garrett shocked himself by asking. Holy shit, was he really this desperate? "Dinner in one of the restaurants, or we could go to the gravity gymnasium."

Jonah's jaw seemed to tighten. "Damn it Garrett, I don't want Cody liking you any more than he already does."

"You're bound to see me around. This ship is big, but it's not that big."

"Managed to miss you until now," Jonah countered. "And no, no dates. No coffee, no dinner, no—"

"Are you coming over for dinner?" Cody asked, appearing as if by magic at Garrett's side. The boy grabbed onto one of Garrett's long-fingered hands with both of his own. "We're having macaroni and cheese. It's my favorite. Do you like it?"

"I do like it, but your daddy doesn't want me to come to dinner," Garrett said a little spitefully. He saw Cody's face crumple with confusion and Jonah's eyes go pleading and sighed. "Besides, I have other plans for tonight. Maybe another time."

"Tomorrow?"

"Don't pester the man, Cody," Jonah said, getting up off the cot. His long body unfolded to its full length, and just looking at it vividly reminded Garrett of how it had felt to have all of that pressed against him, weighing him down, pushing inside of him...

"I have to go," Garrett said suddenly. "It was nice to see you again, Cody. And you, Jonah...?" He already knew, but he wanted to hear it from Jonah's own lips.

"Helms," he said softly. "Jonah and Cody Helms. Nice to see you too, Doctor Caractacus."

"You got it on the first try," Garrett said, a little bemused. He shook his head slightly to clear it, then gently detached himself from Cody. "Have a nice evening." He then turned on his heel and left the infirmary, his mind whirling with so many emotions that he had no idea how to sort through them all. Mechanically, his feet took him back towards his quarters, where he would be alone, with no friends to eat dinner with and no lover to have sex with and no child to be chatty with. When his com rang in the elevator it was almost a palpable relief. "This is Garrett."

"Good evening, Garrett." Jezria's smooth voice penetrated the fog of his emotions. "Would you mind joining me in my quarters? An issue has been raised concerning your work and I'd like to discuss it with you."

"Concerning my work?" Anger, one of the many swirling things he'd been feeling, suddenly took the fore. "Who's been talking to you about my work?"

"I'd rather discuss it in person," Jezria said. "May I expect you soon?"

"I'll be there immediately," Garrett snapped, then disconnected and rerouted the elevator. It took him five minutes to get to Jezria's spacious quarters, and in that amount of time he'd managed to work himself into a satisfyingly indignant lather. Jezria buzzed him in and he got right to the point, despite the fact that several of her aides were with her.

"Who's complaining about my work?"

"Please sit down, Garrett."

"I feel like standing," he gritted. "Who. Is. It."

"Doctor Sims expressed some concern today over your work ethic. She feels you undermine her authority and don't fully dedicate yourself to the time you have in the lab."

"Doctor Sims is an idiot."

"I have to take this complaint seriously, Garrett, and so should you," Jezria reproved him. "She said you spent over an hour watching simulations this morning, and then you took the afternoon off to do a first aid class."

"The class was rescheduled and beyond my control, and as for the simulations, well, I need to see them in order to be able to evaluate my work." Garrett began pacing, trying to describe something he found very difficult to articulate.

"Martina is a structural engineer, she works with numbers and equations and concrete designs. Climatology is chaotic, it's fluid, it's changeable. The environment won't conform to an equation no matter how many hundreds or thousands of data points we have to go off of, and to be honest the data collection that's been done so far on Pandora has been pretty shoddy with regards to weather patterns. I can't get a good idea of the magnitude of the potential errors in our assumptions unless I can get a feel for what's happening, and for that I need to design and review simulations. I'm a scientist, but I'm not a mathematician or an engineer. I need visual cues to facilitate my understanding.

"I've done everything Martina has asked of me in good time, when it makes sense for me to pursue it. Do I have a handle on the weather patterns on Pandora for the next hundred years? No. Am I getting there? Yes. But I can't work miracles, and frankly no one working for Doctor Martina Sims will ever be able to work miracles the way she second guesses and double checks every bit of work we produce." Running abruptly out of steam, Garrett flopped down on the couch across from Jezria, who looked at him concernedly.

"Are you all right?"

The temptation to shout, "Do I fucking look all right?" was almost overwhelming, but he managed to restrain himself. "No," he said simply. "But I can handle it."

"Very well. I'll add my opinion of the formal complaint to the file before it goes into admin, and so you know, my opinion is that her objections are unfounded and that no further notice should be made of it. But you'll have to deal with Doctor Sims on a daily basis, so please try not to overly antagonize her."

"If you had any concept of the amount of control I use on a daily basis with her grand high misanthropic majesty, you wouldn't be cautioning me, you'd be praising my godlike restraint," Garrett sighed.

"I'm sure I would, dear. How is your father?"

"Busy," Garrett replied. "I haven't spoken to him for a while. I did talk with Claudia the other day, though. Things are kind of riled up in the capitol. He might have to institute a curfew."

"That won't be popular."

"Well, I know I hated it as a teenager."

Jezria smiled and smoothly shifted gears. "Thank you for addressing this matter so promptly, Garrett. I think you're doing very good work."

"From your lips to God's ear." Or whatever the saying was. "Mind if I go now? I have a hot date with my hand that's not to be missed."

"Crass," Jezria chided him.

"Honest," Garrett said, standing up and straightening his suit.

"Go, then. And Steven," she turned to one of her aides, "I'm done with the food security information for now as well. Thank you for collecting it all for me. Go and have a nice evening."

"Thank you," Seven said, also standing. He looked at Garrett and smiled slightly, then motioned towards the door. Garrett took the hint and led the way out.