Chapter 15: 100-Mile-High Club
1751 Words
Marvin and Lud had been given their own rooms onboard the Exile for the duration of their trip back to Gaia Station. Comfortable quarters, although not very ample, each with a small window opening to space. The bathroom was shared by all the crew, but Jade and Reel had been comprehensive in giving each of the two young men enough time in there to wash their wounds, relax their shocked muscles and mull over the overload of events they had just experienced.
After a steaming shower, Lud had immediately crashed on his bed.
Marvin had not been so lucky. Concerns over his father, Alexa, Qui’Mal, Supernova Protocol and the fate of humanity in general kept him up, and reasonably so.
At some point he had simply given up on sleeping altogether and decided to explore the ship instead. The mess hall was a pleasant space, filled with cushioned seats and meal tables, as well as a kitchen filled with utensils Marvin did not quite understand. Had he figured out any of the appliances, he might have fixed himself a midnight snack. If he understood any of the food on the fridge as well, of course.
His nocturnal wanderlust had taken him to the cockpit next, only to find it abandoned to autopilot, the blue bur of hyperlight travel brushing past the windshield. Marvin would bet sitting on the pilot chair and watching the huge windows would quickly clear his mind and send him into a dreamless slumber. The only issue was that he did not fit on the chair designed for the tiny Reel. That and the chair smelled of fish.
His next stop would be the cargo hold. Awfully empty given its purpose. The only thing of interest there was a punching bag, a series of lifting weights and… Jade?
The woman, back on her tank top and shorts had her back to the door and absent mindedly huffed through a series of sit-ups.
“Trouble sleeping too?” Marvin asked after a moment of contemplating the workout.
“Oh, hey,” she stopped her exercise and turned to face him. “Pretty much. Hard to believe I’m going back to Sol after three years.”
“You haven’t been home in three years?”
“Special training assignment, remember?” she got up and started jabbing the punching bag.
“So, what was your assignment? I didn’t know soldiers ever left the station.”
“Classified,” she went on punching the bag, each blow a little harder.
“And how did you end up with Reel?” Marvin pressed on. “Odd little guy.”
“We just found each other in a little mess on Fitpos Prime. I keep’im safe, he takes me places. You sure are curious, huh?”
“Part of my job,” Marvin shrugged. “Have you ever heard of the Supernova Protocol?”
Jade stopped hitting the bag and turned to the man. “Come here. I’m going to teach you how to handle yourself in combat. You’ll need it if you’re this annoying with everyone you meet.”
“Thanks, but the idea of my job is resolving things through words and compromises.”
“Words will only take you as far other people are willing to listen,” Jade’s punches were now harder than ever, making her grunt with each hit. “When all else fails, there is only one ultimate solution in the universe: Violence!”
Marvin pressed his lips.
Before any of them could add to the discussion, Jade stopped her boxing training and sniffed the air. “What’s that smell?”
Marvin sniffed too. He did smell something. Something good. Familiar…
“Popcorn!” both humans said at once.
Marvin and Jade took off running to the mess hall, the woman tripping over a dumbbell along the way. As they approached the onboard kitchen, the popping sounds of cornels turning inside-out announced disaster.
The humans barged into the mess hall together to find Reel standing on a stool, eagerly watching the transformation of corn into popcorn inside a transparent glass dome.
So that was a microwave!
Jade crossed the room like a lightning bold and grabbed Reel by the legs, pulling the short alien away from the counter, but he fought back. His tiny orange hands and the minuscule black claws leaving the membranous fingers clutched to the space-microwave from where the pops came.
“Let go!” Jade roared.
“Noooo! Just one! Just a taste!” Reel remained glued to the machine. “I can stop whenever I want! Unhand me, you primate aberration!”
“No! Let go of the rad-dome!” Jade grunted again. “I’ll rip your arms off if I have to!”
“I’ll grow new ones! I just need one Crazy-Corn! I need it!”
“One whole year!” Marvin yelled, and the two struggling people froze to look at him. “You’ve gone a whole year without having Crazy-Corn. You told me so yourself. What happened?”
“It’s just a tiny one,” Reel said, and the last corn popped.
“It always is. How many times have you had just a tiny one over the last years?”
Reel released the dome and Jade released his legs. “Too many times.”
“I don’t know much about your people,” Marvin said, taking a step closer to the desolated pilot. “But I can see you’re strong and proud. You shouldn’t let something as small as that control you. You’re bigger than this!”
“You’re right. I am,” Reel said crestfallen—literally, given how low his head fins hanged. Then he leaped from the stool. “Just one thing. I have no people.”
Flapping his scaly feet away, Reel retreated to his quarters and locked the door, leaving the humans by themselves once again.
“That was something…” Jade muttered, gaze stuck on the entrance to the pilot’s quarters.
“Words and compromises, honey. Words and compromises.”
“One day you’ll need to shoot someone, and I won’t be there to save your sorry pretty ass.”
“Not sure I’m ready for guns,” Marvin took a step closer to Jade. “But I could go for a close-quarters combat lesson right now.”
“I’d be happy to teach you, diplomat boy,” Jade took a step back towards the counter, a mischievous smile to her face. “But now we have a whole cob’s worth of popcorn. It’d be a shame if that went to waste, so I guess I’ll just grab it and go watch a movie in bed.”
“Many words,” Marvin edged even closer. “How about a compromise?”
“You mean do both?”
“At the same time.”
And they did both.
At the same time.
***
When the Exile left hyperlight, the Solar System was but a series of particles rounding a specially bright kernel, and Gaia Station was but a gray blight miles away.
“Wakey-wakey, humans! You’re home!” Reel ran through the corridor, banging on the three doors to the rooms occupied by humans. Only two of those doors opened, though, given how Marvin and Jade came out of the same one.
Lud, as usual, delayed a bit, but soon left his designated quarters rubbing his eyes.
“You look well-rested,” Marvin said as he met his new friend on the corridor.
“Totally passed out. Guess it had something to do with the whole nearly dying thing. You look a lot better yourself.”
“Between you and I?” Marvin lowered his voice. “I think I just entered the 100-Mile-High Club.”
“Huh?” Ludwig rubbed his eyes again.
“Never mind,” Marvin tapped his friend’s shoulder and started for the bridge. “Come on, they’ll need us at the cockpit to talk to the Station.”
When the two men got to the front of the ship, they found Reel leaning over the ship commands and cautiously steering it towards the peaceful Gaia Station.
“There you are!” the pilot faced their reflections. “How many hours of sleep do you need?! Six?!”
“Ideally eight, actually,” Lud said.
“By the stars! What a waste of life! Anyhow, make yourselves useful and let your friends now we come in peace, please?” Reel swirled on his chair holding a surprisingly ergonomic headset.
Marvin grabbed the gear and slid his head between the speakers, a microphone automatically lifted to his mouth.
“Gaia Station control, come in. This is Junior Diplomat Marvin Grant Junior, requesting permission to doc. Over,” he waited a few seconds for a response. Nothing. “I repeat. This is Junior Diplomat Marvin Grant Junior requesting permission to doc. Over.”
While he spoke, Jade arrived in her workout clothes, holding a Nebula & Stardust themed coffee mug. “What’s up?”
“No one’s answering,” Marvin squinted at the distant space station. “Are you sure we’re on the right frequency?”
“Wanna do my job now?” Reel threw his little arms up. “Of course we’re on the right frequency, I’m not an i***t!”
Marvin tried again.
No response.
“Can you bring us closer?” Marvin asked, a cold hand squeezing his guts.
“I’d rather have their permission, first, so we’re blown to pieces,” Reel pushed the yoke ahead and the Exile accelerated towards the station. “But whatever.”
The closer the get, the clearer the communication signal got. There was still no response, but eventually a series of rustles turned into a cleaner sound patter. That repeated every few seconds
Beep-bee-beep. Beeeep-beeeep-beeeep. Beep-beep-beep.
The three people around Marvin did not hear the sounds, but his face announced bad news.
“It’s morse code,” Marvin felt his face go numb while removing the headset.
“An SOS.”
- Writer
