Gravity's Embrace: Trying to shape a relationship.
22,554 words right now. Though someone I know has just told me she's at 33K - and knows someone who's already hit 50K. Ah, to be young again...!
So my challenge at this point is to shape Exy and Areatha's relationship. I wasn't expecting it to be: I thought I was writing a sci-fi adventure, but they snuck up on me and turned it into a character-centred piece. That's absolutely not my forte.
And I've stacked the deck against myself. I can't write a traditional NaNo romance; I can't even write a traditional growing friendship, not when Areatha started out throwing innuendo out every line. So my goal is to mark the growth of their friendship by having her stop innuending. We'll see how it works out.
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Scene 14
True to their word, our rescuers took a good seventy minutes to show up. Their 'shuttle' turned out to be a wheeled cargo hauler, with huge wide-spaced wheels. It drove right over us, then clamped a gigantic claw around the sliver, pivoted us to horizontal, and lifted us clean off the ground.
The next twenty-five minutes weren't the most comfortable I'd ever spent, as the shuttle bumped over every rock between us and Mars (wait, that doesn't even make sense). The only bright side was that being squished up against Areatha once again kept me from rattling around and probably breaking half my bones. I watched through the canopy as we climbed to the rim of a crater and headed down towards the cluster of grey habs in the centre. The base looked pretty much like every moonbase I'd ever trained my telescopes on; there was nothing to indicate exactly whose clutches we'd fallen into now.
The shuttle bounced its way down to the floor of the crater, and trundled into a fitted docking hanger. The claw we were hanging from released us to lie on the metallic floor. Somewhere above us, the base locked onto the body of the crawler; then the wheels retracted up and in, and the walls on either side of us began to close in.
I glanced at Areatha dubiously. "Do you think they remember we're here?"
"I don't like the idea of becoming a pancake, so I'm going to go with 'hopefully'."
I watched the dusty steelwork grind towards us, passing under the belly of the crawler itself, and couldn't restrain a sigh of relief when they stopped. For a few seconds, nothing happened - then the dust outside began to swirl upwards in what should have been a vacuum.
I tapped into the sliver's sensors. "Air pressure outside is rising," I reported. "We should be reaching one atmosphere in three… two… one…" Beyond the glass, the agitated moondust stopped its whirling and began to settle slowly out. "Now."
Areatha nodded fractionally. "I guess that's our cue, then," she said. "Hey, do you think when you pop the canopy we'll fly out like corks from a bottle?"
I declined to answer that question - but I did make sure to raise the glass a little more carefully than usual. There was a hissing around the seal as the pressure equalised, and then the toughened glass canopy lifted and for the first time in hours I actually had more than half an inch of space around me. I drew in my first real deep breath - and then groaned as Areatha pushed off my ribcage and catapulted out of the ship.
"Wow!" she exclaimed, floating through the air in a slow-motion bounce. "I should come to the moon more often, this is so much better than zero-gravity."
She landed on the sliver's upper hull, her black hair a slowly-settling cloud around her, then stepped off and drifted down to the floor.
I followed, rather more sedately, climbing over the rim of the ship. As I did, I found long black fibres drifting away from my hands. "Something wrong with the seal?" I murmured, plucking a strand out of the air and peering at it. "I'd think we would have noticed before."
"Yeah, it's not the seals." Areatha was running her fingers through her hair, trying to get it settled down, and held up a bunch for my inspection. "It's an absolute disaster is what it is. Look at this!"
I obediently looked. Other than the grey dust slowly settling in it, I couldn't see anything the matter. "Uh…"
She rolled her eyes and dropped it back into place, then turned slowly on the spot. Sure enough, one side of her body was covered only about half as well as the other, and there were clumps missing from even the covered half. "It's going to take me years to grow it back out again."
"You could always cut it," I suggested. "It's not like long hair is particularly practical."
Areatha gave me a look under lowered lashes. "Exy boy," she said, "are you asking me to show you more of my body?"
"... forget I said anything." I looked around the covered space and found the ladder tucked away in the corner. "Shall we go up?"
"Sure." Areatha bent her legs and jumped clear across the space, landing by the ladder. "I'll go first, give you that view you're after."
I made a hop of my own, grabbing the ladder a rung above her hand. "I'll go first," I countered. "For very good reasons."
"Oh, well if they're very good…" She stepped back and gestured for me to take the lead.
I swung myself onto the ladder and began to climb. It led to a circular hatch in the base of the crawler, which I spun open with the wheel and headed through. Within was a tiny airlock with two additional hatches: one leading into the crawler, the other out to what I assumed was the dock. I tried the crawler-side wheel first, to no avail. The other hatch swung easily outwards, and I stepped into a wide corridor.
"Good evening!" a cheerful voice said, and I turned to see the man from the radio heading down the hallway towards me. "Welcome to our humble abode. I hope the ride wasn't tough rough?"
"I've had worse," I said, rubbing my fingers over my side. The scratches Areatha had inflicted still smarted, but at least they hadn't bled very much. "Exeter St. David," I added, holding out a hand.
"Pete Miller," the man said, shaking my hand vigorously, then looked past me as the hatch clunked open again. "And this lovely lady must be- oh, my."
Areatha pulled herself through and walked straight to me, smoothing her hair down again as she went. She looped her arm through mine, positioning herself so the less-covered side of her body was against me. "Areatha," she said, directing an extremely professional smile at Miller. "New Etruscan Navy."
"And a pleasure it is to meet you, ma'am," Miller said. His hand twitched as if to offer to shake, but Areatha's body language clearly put him off, and he tucked it behind his back instead. "You folks certainly took your time getting here," he said instead.
I glanced back at the hatch. "Our ship's a bit small," I said. "It took a couple of minutes to sort ourselves out."
Weirdly, Miller laughed, as if I'd made some kind of joke - but not the dirty laugh I would have expected if Areatha's plan had worked. "Well, you're here now," he said. "I know I said 'good evening', but it's the middle of our night, so I figured I'd take you to your quarters first, get you settled in. We can get started in the morning."
I frowned slightly, trying not to let it show. "That's very generous of you," I said.
"All part of the service," Miller assured me with a laugh. "And I'm sure you must be hungry - not much room for food in that pokey ship! - so I had the kitchen lay something on for you. I think it's salmon today - and coffee, of course." He paused, glanced at Areatha again. "I'll grab some spare coveralls, too, I'm sure I can find some in your size."
"Nah, don't worry about it," Areatha said cheerfully, but, "That's a great idea," I said over her. Ignoring her glare, I smiled at Miller. "I'd be glad for a change, I've been wearing this for weeks."
Again that slightly strange laugh, then Miller led us off down the corridor. As we loped along in the low gravity, I noticed a vaguely familiar symbol blazoned on the wall, a sort of two-tailed fish-woman. It took me a moment to place it, and then it clicked: I'd seen it on the side of some of our kit back home, pieces that had been imported from… "You're Cascadian?"
Miller stopped and turned to me with a bewildered look. "Obviously," he said. "Didn't they-?"
"Oh, ignore him," Areatha laughed, elbowing me in the ribs. "He's Celtic, they talk funny. 'You're well?' 'It's teatime?'." She rolled her eyes at Miller, jerking her head sideways at me. "What he means, in real-person speak, is 'Are you Cascadian government, or corporate?'."
"Ah!" Miller's expression cleared, and he glanced over his shoulder at the emblem. "Corporate, obviously; I don't think PortVanSea could run a science station if you put it in Spokane, let alone on the moon!"
Areatha laughed easily. "Hey, I know that. But you know how these Celtic types are…" She shrugged expansively, and waited until Miller had turned away again to shoot me a death glare.
I took the hint, and stayed silent until we reached our quarters. Miller opened the solid-looking door to reveal a room not dissimilar to the one at the top of the tower, way back in New Etruria. It even had the window, looking out over the lunar landscape.
"I'll go and sort out those coveralls, folks," he said, looking from me to Areatha as we stepped inside. "Make yourselves comfortable, have a bite to eat; I'll send someone in the morning to bring you over for breakfast." And with a wave and a nod, he was gone, the door clicking shut behind him.
I turned to Areatha. "What-?" I started to demand, but she pressed a finger to my lips.
"Tempting as it is to silence you with a kiss," she said, "I'm being nice and not bothering that lip of yours. But shh." She hopped away across the room and peeked through the other door. "Ooh! We've got a shower!" She ran a hand over her hair, scattering grey dust into the air. "I desperately need a shower."
"Have fun," I said, and looked towards the table under the window. "I think I'm going to try some of that coffee."
Areatha frowned and turned back towards me, holding out a hand. "No, you're not. Come join me."
I rolled my eyes at her. "No."
Pursing her lips, she folded her arms across her chest. "Exeter St. David. Come and join me in the shower."
"No."
She sighed and glanced through the door again. "At least come hold my towel, then?" I opened my mouth to refuse again, and she gave me a wide-eyed look. "Please?" she said. "Like just before we left?"
I hesitated. We'd both washed occasionally on the Johannes Vermeer, but never a shower. That meant she was up to something. "All right," I said, feigning cheerfulness, "but if that coffee gets cold…"
"I'm sure it won't," Areatha said. "Cascadia takes its coffee seriously. Now come on, I'm going to get undressed."
I held up a finger. "Uh…"
"Makes it nice and quick," she said, winking at me. "Come on, Exy, or you'll miss the show."
I bounded over to the bathroom, feeling exceedingly dubious. Inside, Areatha was already fiddling with the controls for the shower, which occupied a glass cubicle in the corner. "Shut the door," she said, not looking up, "I'm cold."
"I wonder why that is," I muttered, but did as I was told. Then I picked up a towel from its rail (and who puts a towel rail in their moonbase? Seriously.) and looked for somewhere to sit down.
Areatha coughed. "Are you sure you won't join me?" she asked.
"Absolutely, 100% positive."
"Hmph." She shook her head, flicking her hair out again. "Then at least come close enough that I can whisper sweet nothings to you."
I rolled my eyes. "I'd really rather-"
"Exy." She pulled open the cubicle door and pointed at the floor in front of it. "You. Here. Now."
Me. There. Then. I crossed the room in a couple of hops, landing just as Areatha stepped into the shower cubicle and shut the door. Through the glass, I watched her fiddle with the settings and turn the water on.
It was a very strange sight. The water was pushed out of the shower head under pressure, so fell about how you'd expect. But once it hit the base of the shower, it had a tendency to bounce, droplets flying back up to waist height or higher. Add in the spray bouncing back from the sides of the cubicle - and in some cases, literally rebounding from one side to the other and back - and the gigantic cloud of steam already being raised, and you ended up with something as far from a normal shower as the League is from New Arnor.
In fact, it was so engrossing that I didn't notice at first that Areatha was glaring at me. When she finally drew my attention, she said something - but I had no idea what. All I could hear was the muted pattering of water.
She said it again, clearly louder, and I shrugged helplessly. The glass cubicle went clear up to the ceiling, and I realised that it was probably close to airtight - no-one wanted water escaping in a one-sixth gravity environment. I considered saying as much to Areatha, but what would be the point? I settled for pointing up at the point the glass met the roof.
She glanced up, then muttered something that was probably unprintable. I watched in faint confusion as she reached back and turned the shower off, then waited a few seconds for the water to settle down before unsealing the door and pushing it open.
"Sorry," I said with a shrug. "I can't- yerk?! "
Areatha grabbed hold of the collar of my jumpsuit and pulled. In the low Lunar gravity, I went flying: through the door, into the shower, and clear across to the far wall. I caught myself, slipped on the wet floor and had to scrabble to stay upright, and managed to turn around just in time to see Areatha click the seal back into place.
I folded my arms and glowered at her. "I said I don't want to get in the shower."
Areatha nodded. "Mm-hmm. I know." And she reached across and turned the water back on.
"What in Derry?!" I tried to jump back, but I was already against the wall, and all I succeeded in doing was sliding halfway up to the ceiling. Below me, Areatha took a couple of steps forward, perfectly positioning herself so that when I landed she was able to lean forward, press her body against mine, and speak directly in my ear:
"This way they can't hear us, Exy. And we really need to talk."
I stared at her ear, a view I'd become very familiar with in the sliver. She wasn't holding herself nearly as close as we'd been crushed there, but there was the minor fact that we were both soaking wet. "You couldn't have whispered?" I demanded.
"I don't know how good their tech is," she said, pitching her voice so even I could barely hear it over the water. "They might be able to read lips, too."
I glanced to the side. The glass of the shower cubicle was thoroughly coated with steam, presumably rendering us mere blurs to any cameras. "So now they'll just think we're making out in the shower."
"Yup." She leant in closer, pinning me in place. "I figure we'll start by actually doing so, to get in character, and-"
"No."
"Spoilsport." Areatha lifted her head and met my gaze. "Sorry about cutting you off so many times, but Exy, didn't you notice? They think they were expecting us."
"They were," I pointed out. "We sent them a distress call. They might even have seen us landing."
She reached up and flicked my ear with one finger. "No; you're not listening. They were expecting us to come to the Moon. Someone told them we were on our way."
I blinked, remembering the comment about taking our time, and the odd way Miller had reacted. "The Martians?" I said.
"They're the only ones who could have known," Areatha agreed, "but I'm not sure. They also seemed to think we'd know where we were - that this was a Cascadian base."
"Cascadian corporate." I rolled my eyes. "Seriously, who lets their corporations run-?"
Another ear-flick. "Exy. Focus. We could be in horrible danger."
"Oh, come off it, Areatha." I gestured expansively with one hand. "So they think we're someone we're not. Let's just tell them about it and ask for a lift home."
She reached up and grabbed my waving hand, clamping it firmly to her back. "You're meant to be making out, not drowning," she hissed. "And you're missing the obvious. Like, this base is so secret that they'll assume whoever lands on their doorstep is the people they're expecting. Like, Cascadian corporations are noted for charging for everything, and this shower alone would probably burn through everything we have unless they keep thinking we're being paid for. Like, we're going to 'get started' in the morning - and I think we have a duty to find out exactly what we'll be starting. Don't you?"
"Uh." I took a few moments to consider her conclusions. "I… guess."
"Good." She released my hand and stepped back, tipping her head to let the water flow down through her black hair. "So we stick around. We fake our way through whatever we're supposed to 'get started' on. And then we find a way to escape this base and get back to Earth to tell our governments all about it." She opened one eye and smiled at me. "Simple. Pass the soap?"
Scene 15
She took her time over the shower, rubbing the soap into her hair and skin at least three times until she said she felt clean. She offered to help me get the soaking jumpsuit off and soap myself down, too, but I respectfully declined.
I think she felt a little bad over the way she'd treated me. When she finally turned the water off, she made the trek across the room to collect the towels - fortunately there were enough that the one I'd dropped in the shower when she pulled me in was unneeded - and even looked (mostly) away while I undressed and dried myself. Then, I with one towel around my waist and another over my shoulders, and she with nothing but a single sheet holding her sodden hair on top of her head, we went back into the bedroom.
"I'm starting to think you might have been right about starting with the coffee," Areatha said, turning towards the table by the window. For my part, I was more interested in the rack of clothing which had appeared against the opposite wall, and I headed in that direction.
Areatha looked over her shoulder at me, eyebrow raised. "There's not much point putting those on if we're going to bed."
"Uh-huh." I waved a hand over my shoulder and kept going. "And you've got no ulterior motives at all."
"Huh?" She sounded genuinely baffled, and I turned back in time to see her face flush. "Oh. No, I just meant they wouldn't be comfortable to sleep in." She brushed a strand of hair out of her face - not that I could see any hair there - and rallied a smile. "Though now that you mention it…"
I rolled my eyes, shaking my head to myself. "It's not like there's anything else to wear."
Areatha just shrugged, pulling a chair out from the table. "I recognise the tailoring. Do what you want, but you'll regret it."
The annoying thing was, she was right. I ran a hand down one of the coveralls, feeling the crinkly plasticky fabric. It would be downright impossible to sleep in, and I had a feeling it would be murder simply to walk around in.
Which left me with two choices: either admit that I was wrong and go over to the table in just my towels, or bite my tongue, put on the suit, and cheerfully pretend it was all fine. That would be stupid, but would stop Areatha being all smug about it.
I considered my options. Then I walked back over to the table in just my towels. "I think they're actually woven from concentrated itch," I said, sitting down in the chair opposite Areatha and adjusting my towel. "What's for supper?"
"Mostly coffee," she said, pouring me a cup. "I think there's something horribly wrong with the salmon."
I peered at the plate. "It's certainly not what I'm used to," I admitted. "But let's not be rude to our hosts."
"I don't intend to." Areatha plucked a triangle of flatbread from under a piece of salmon, then scraped the vegetable topping from the fish onto the bread. "Voila."
"I think you should at least try it." I picked up a complete half-sandwich and took a nibble from the corner. "Seems okay so… no, there it is." I peeled the salmon off and held it up. "I think they might actually have marinaded it in coffee."
"Can't have," Areathe said, sipping from her cup. "The coffee tastes good." She raised her mug towards me. "To… us, then?"
I smiled slightly, hearing the undertones and overtones of the simple toast. "To us," I agreed, adding silently: Against the world.
We finished our meal in companionable silence. When she was done, Areatha stood up and pulled the towel from her hair. Her long sable locks tumbled in slow motion, cascading in damp streamers down her back and sides. Carefully, she wrung each clump out with the towel, then tugged them down in front of her.
I cocked my head analytically. "It doesn't exactly hide very much."
"It's not meant to hide, it's meant to highlight," Areatha said absently, fiddling with the strands. "But yeah. It'll spread out more once it dries."
"Not on that side," I said, pointing at the half which had been torn by the sliver's canopy. "You'd need extensions."
She pursed her lips disapprovingly, lifting the strands to examine them. "Maybe I can redistribute it," she said. "There was a brush in the bathroom… ah, well, that's one for the morning." She slung the towel over the back of the chair and held out a hand towards me. "Come to bed."
"No."
Areatha rolled her eyes, her hand holding steady. "Exeter St. David. My dear boy. Come to bed."
I reflected on her ostensible plan to keep herself safe by pretending to a relationship with me. "I'm not really tired," I said, trying to find an excuse for the microphones. "I think it's the coffee."
"I get that," Areatha said with a lopsided grin. "Nevertheless, I really think you should come to bed."
I reflected further, on the fact that feigning a sexual relationship was our best hope of being able to communicate about what was really going on, and that the Cascadians might get suspicious if our behaviour suddenly changed. I closed my eyes for a moment, sighed, then reached out and took her hand. "Hey, I've got an idea: I'll come to bed."
"Good boy." Areatha pulled me upright and led me towards a double bed that could have been copied from the one back in New Etruria. "Top or bottom?"
"Side," I said firmly. "And I'm feeling-" Not tired, I'd just denied that. "-a little queasy. Must be the salmon. So please don't try anything." I tugged the towel tighter around my waist, pulling on the knot.
My companion smirked at me as she turned the covers back. "Same here," she said, hopping up into the air and landing with a floof in the low gravity. "Except the exact opposite."