Correcting Course?

Posted on Fri Jul 31st, 2020 @ 3:55am by Captain Gary Alexander & Lieutenant JG Alexandra Campa

1,096 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Mission 2 - Encounters of a First Kind
Location: Campa's Quarters
Timeline: 2168/07/28 1800

Shifts were over for Gary and most of his Chiefs. He knew that Alex felt lonely. He held her just two days ago in his quarters and it felt good. Probably, he should have checked on her before now. He wondered if she was angry with him or whether she expected just some pleasant encounters.

They never discussed anything further and she had been more than professional on shift, but never cold. However, there had not been more. If she thought it was more, would there not have been some more flirting?

Mentally, he shrugged to himself. Regardless of the situation, it was his duty as Captain to keep up the ship's morale and he would do it in whatever means necessary. He rang Alex's chime and waited for her to answer and for him to enter.

"One second!" Alex called out. She hadn't been expecting the captain's visit. A few seconds later, she called out, "Come in!" She was in a white bathrobe with a towel around her wet hair. She was just finishing fastening it more securely as the door opens and she sees who it is. "Captain?"

Gary laughed at Alex when he saw how she was dressed. "People are going to talk if you always meet me at a door like this," he told her. "May I come in?" he asked with a leering grin. A present worth unwrapping.

"Should I greet you all grimy and disheveled then, captain?" she says. "I'd spent a lot of my off duty time today working on the feasibility of the balloon concept I mentioned to you before. Unfortunately, I'm increasingly convinced the costs in time and space. The limits of the idea are becoming increasingly obvious as I work through the practicalities so I certainly hope some of these trade opportunities work out."

She blinked a little and her cheeks flushed. "Sorry. That started out with me just being coy and then went full work mode. Please, come in." She smiles and gestures him inside.

Gary entered and the door closed behind him. "You're cute when you blush," he told her with a warm smile. "Though, truth be told, I would take you any way that I could have you." He grinned at Alex and replied, "But, perhaps you have forgotten that I was an engineer long before that I was a Captain. I'm still intrigued by your concept. I'm also concerned about the limits on our resources."

He shook his head. "See, I can easily slip into work mode, as well. Though, that's not my preferences for slipping into things." He closed the distance between the two of them and said, "We have not talked much in the past few days."

"No, we haven't," she agreed. "So maybe we can discuss the balloons later." She frowned slightly. "Can I get you anything, Gary?"

"Aside from you?" he chuckled. "No, no. I'm fine. Maybe some water. I actually just came here to check up on you."

"Direct," she says teasingly as she fetches two waters, swaying a little as she walks over to hand him his. She sat down on her small couch, crossing her legs. "Sit with me?"

Gary accepted the water and then acceded to her wishes, moving over to the couch and sitting closely to Alex and looked deeply into her eyes, waiting for Alex.

"It's easier to slip into work mode," she admits as she sits near him, sipping her water slowly. "I'm really not at peace right now. I'm just trying to stay focused and do my duty. To take things one moment at a time. I just keep thinking of everyone I'll never see again. They all probably think I'm dead. They think we're all dead. The only people I have left are my crewmates on this ship." She paused and looked up, catching his eyes. "Do you want me, Gary? Really?"

"Do I want you? Of course I do. How could I not want you, Alex?" Gary, admittedly was lost at the word, "Really." He wondered whether Alex was trying to trap him into an exclusive relationship, something that he had not considered while on Horizon. "But yes, despite the fact we are alive, back home, we're likely thought of as dead. We're all going to have to find a way to make a new life out here, barring a miraculous journey that takes us instantaneously back to the Milky Way. Newton says for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Though, what that might be here, I am at a loss to tell you."

"I don't know," she answered vaguely. "Everything just seems more complicated now. We're all going to be in close quarters for a long time." She sighed and set her water aside, shifting to lean against him and rest her head on his chest.

"You analyze the situation correctly," Gary told Alex, stroking her hair absentmindedly. "And it may test many of our traditional beliefs." He sighed resignedly. "I'm an Engineer at heart, Alex. I see a problem, I solve a problem. But this problem requires more than just replacing a broken circuit or creating a new subroutine around a dead one. And, we lack information. It is the pressure that I was prepared for, but not an easy burden, especially with each day that passes."

"You mean..." she paused, trying to work it through. "You mean reproductively? To preserve genetic diversity?" She frowns. "I didn't plan to be monogamous on Horizon. I certainly wasn't trying to get you to be or anything. But I also always thought my adventures in space and passion would be something for my twenties, that I'd eventually settle down. I'm not sure that'll ever be an option now."

"Yes, Alex. You figured it out." Gary replied with a sad, but knowing smile. "I just do not know how the crew will take that thought and I'm not ready to press that issue. Things are too raw. But, I do believe that we should seize every day. We don't know what will come tomorrow."

"I suppose we don't," she said, nestling into him a little more. "Could you just hold me for a bit, Gary?" she requested.

Gary brought Alex into himself. Mentally, he considered the time. He knew that he had about two hours before he had to be with KAT. That should be plenty enough time for him to take care of Alex and then spend the night with KAT. "I'm here for you, Alex." He then kissed the top of her head.

 

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