The next several days are a flurry of activity on base as well as on Earth. They go about their tasks in preparing for an EVA. Extra vehicular activities are more routine here, but still offer plenty of risks and challenges. Aula and Harvey organize their tools and spacesuits in the equipment lock. It's near the Armstrong airlock and about as close to private as can be expected outside of their rooms.
"All I'm saying is take it easy. Kelly's just a kid."
"You really want to have this conversation while I'm holding a drill?" Aula lifts her pistol-grip tool, which looks like a silver uzi. "And 31 isn't a kid."
Harvey holds his helmet up to the light. "That's not why you're pissed."
"I liked you better before you married a psychiatrist."
He leans back against the wall. "Ross says the same thing."
She cracks a smile and focuses on the drill. It has a large screen so astronauts can program the speed and torque depending on what their EVA requires. It's made from a glass-infused plastic called Lexan and wrapped in aluminum tape. The drill is modular, battery-powered, and resistant to the large temperature fluctuations in space.
"How's he doing?"
"I drive him crazy," Harvey says casually. "Same as always."
He leans in and cleans an imaginary spot on the golden visor of his EMU. The helmet wobbles on his thighs, decapitated in his lap. He upends it and starts cleaning the inside with a cloth of tearless soap and oil. It looks like he's wiping the inside of a fishbowl. They work in companionable silence surrounded by dissected spacesuits.
"When I get back to Earth, I'm going to do something big for our anniversary." He unfolds and refolds the piece of cloth, then keeps cleaning. "Ross always wanted us to dive with sharks."
"Sharks," Aula repeats flatly.
"Yeah. Big ones. Tigers, hammerheads, great whites...."
"How many Jaws movies are there? Three?"
"Four." Harvey wipes his forehead with the back of his hand. "Ross has all the sequels."
"He hates the sequels."
"Oh, but he enjoys hating them."
She fits the drill back into her toolkit and starts on Harvey's. They'll need to take two separate kits while inspecting and clearing the leak.
"So, even with four Jaws movies...."
"One Jaws movie and three insults to the Jaws movie."
"...He still wants to dive with them? And your response is to enable him?"
Harvey points at her with the cloth. "Exactly."
"Right."
"Sharks get a bad rap." He sets his helmet down and starts checking the EVA gloves for wear and tear. "They're ancient apex predators and biting is how they say hello."
"Are you trying to imply something, Harv?"
"Me? Imply something via shark trivia?" Harvey slaps the glove over his mouth like a scandalized old woman. "Never."
She shakes her head. "I asked. I have no one to blame but myself."
YOU ARE READING
The Moonwalker
Science Fiction| WATTPAD EDITOR'S CHOICE | Major Aula Reed is a Canadian fighter pilot, veteran astronaut, and closeted bisexual. She's stationed on the second International Lunar Base or ILUB-2 with seven other crewmates. To be separated from Earth means facing r...
