The Iron Skeleton

Chapter 31

Aaron rubbed his numb hands together vigorously as he watched Sila sow another patch together for the inner membrane of the pipeline. Baird had already headed back inside for lunch. He had finished creating the massive volume of paste already as it was, so his usefulness to Aaron was as limited as his knowledge of the technology required for the task. 

He glanced up when he heard another pair of footsteps crunch down on the snow. The black rope dangled from the Sand Dollar's exit hatch, and just below it, Wendy met his gaze and shivered. She sipped from a thermos, stood still, and blinked a couple times before finally began crossing the distance between herself and Aaron. 

Aaron grinned at the blonde and met her halfway. "Hey!" he greeted her, "What's up?" 

"It's brass monkeys out here." 

Aaron sputtered with laughter. "And what's that supposed to mean?" 

Wendy narrowed her eyes and pinned her arms closer to her body. "It's bloody freezing, that's what! How do you stand it?" 

"I dunno," he said with a shrug, "I guess I'm just keeping myself moving." 

"But you've been out here for five and a half hours! You only came in for a bloody minute to take a slash, but other than that, you've been standing out here!" 

Aaron smirked. "And you've been keeping track of where I'm at...why exactly?" 

Wendy stammered. "That's...not...that's not the point." she finally said, taking a sip from the thermos. "I came out here to bring you some coffee. Gotta warm up at some point, right?" 

Aaron took the container with a smile and also took a sip. "Thanks. You shock me." 

"How's that?" 

"Well, if it were the other way around, with me giving you a cup after having sipped from it, you'd be like, 'Ugh, that's bloody disgusting!'." 

Wendy's eyebrows twitched. "Are you complaining?" 

"No, not at all." he replied with a hearty chuckle and a playful tap on her shoulder, "Just your inconsistencies fascinate me." 

"You're weird." 

"Birds of a feather, gotta say..." he trailed off. 

"Might not be such a good idea to bring up bloody birds right now, considering all the Divine Flock rubbish we can't seem to get away from." 

"You've got a point." 

Wendy exhaled both visibly and audibly. She glanced at the tray on the ground and frowned. "What's that?" 

"Filler paste. Gotta let it freeze for a few hours, then we can thaw it and start filling the holes in the metal. We're lucky to be where we're at, 'cause we can just leave it outside. We certainly don't have room in the freezer for something that big." 

"Well, obviously! That tray's wider than the whole bloody freezer!" 

Aaron nodded, but said nothing more for a few moments. He perked up when Wendy shuddered. "You alright?" 

"Not really. It's still freezing." 

"Well," he said, holding the thermos up to her, "help yourself." 

She hesitated for a while, but finally conceded and drank another mouthful of the steamy liquid. "Thanks." 

"No problem—wait a minute, I thought you didn't like bitter drinks." 

"I don't like tea. If you haven't noticed, there's a bloody difference." 

"Well, yeah," he said, "but how're bitter leaves in water any worse than bitter beans?"