In A Starship's Wake

Chapter 37: Talk In The Park

Orson Station was not a bad place to live, Tyrone thought as they walked into The Park through a tunnel. He didn't have a strong attachment to it, but that was mainly due to how little time he'd spent here. For all its faults it had a few good amenities, and one of the best was The Park.

In a planetside town you would expect to have Centennial Park, Riverfront Park, Washington Park and a whole list of other common names for the public green spaces. With only the one, Orson Station simply named it "The Park." The station really only needed one, and it was big.

"Where should we go?" Justine asked, looking around from the small rise where their tunnel let out to see what places were unoccupied.

The Park was the top level of Orson Station, a big agricultural dome just like the ones on Couradeen Station. It was nearly a mile in diameter. They stood near the headwaters of an artificial stream that twisted along about a third of the dome's outer edge before turning inward to flow into a lake near the center. Instead of crops, the dome was filled with stands of trees, flower beds and a good layer of grass, some of which was mown. With no wind or storms to knock them over, most of the original trees were still standing, now nearly a hundred years old.

Paths cris-crossed the dome, many lined with occasional flower beds and benches. A lot of the creatures Tyrone would expect in a planetside park were also present. Songbirds flew back and forth from nests in the trees to strategically placed feeders, and squirrels squabbled over leftovers the birds dropped or acorns from the oaks. He knew the lake had more than its share of fish. Waterfowl were the only thing missing, and park staff had assured him that the mess they made wasn't worth the trouble.

"I didn't have anywhere in particular in mind," he answered as he looked around. It wasn't too crowded, they had come at a good time. "Why don't we walk for a while and decide as we go?"

"Okay."

They turned to follow the stream around the dome and down to the lake, the path they nearly always took. There were a number of little spots they had picked out throughout the park where they would sit and talk, and Justine had even more where she went to read. Sooner or later they would just pick one and sit down.

"I know you don't want me to go overboard until Joseph leaves, but how much are you going to let me rearrange Garden Variety Animal?" Justine put her hand in his, and they slowed down a little.

"Well, that depends on what you want to do."

"That's not very helpful dear," She gave him a pout, and he laughed.

"Well, I don't want to do anything like, say, moving the kitchen to the cargo bay. Other than that, it's mostly fair game. Joseph and I haven't put a lot of effort into decorating, and we just put the furniture wherever it was easy to use. Is there some project you've been thinking about?"

"A few projects, nothing as extreme as relocating major appliances though."

"Well good, that's a pain on a normal house and far harder on a starship."

"I'll keep that in mind. I was thinking of cleaning out the room you've been using for storage so that it can be another workroom, at least for the time being."

"I don't think there's any problem with that. A lot of things in there are either to go with the new ship or waiting for when you're aboard. Whichever it is, they won't need the space much longer."

"Okay, good. We can probably cram whatever is left into one of the spare cabins for now. They aren't getting much use in the foreseeable future." The couple turned onto a bridge across the stream and paused to watch the water for a while. "I'd like to start painting a few rooms too. You and Joseph have left everything in the stock material colors."