Reflections of an Armedia
Elysium
Chapter Four
By RKP Hunt & Beans
We hadn't noticed the rest of the group moving into the dining area to begin eating dinner. Esme didn’t seem to want to bother us or at least we didn’t hear her call us to the table. We had just opened the second bottle of scotch and we were both pretty far gone. The first bottle had mostly been a pour and chug job.
"Spraghetti?" Halen asked, when he noticed people were leaving the living room and headed into the dining room.
"Nope. You'll get the alcohol soaking up the sauce... I mean, the aclollol will be in the noodles... No, just no food for you. Sheeter." I didn't want him getting sobered up by food so he could win.
"I don't need to anyway. You are about to lose." Halen gulped more scotch straight from the bottle. "I can sshow you my room here you know cause I can."
"Whatever. Bring the scotch." I felt proud that I only weaved for a minute on the way to the stairs. They looked long but I knew I could do it.
The door to his room slipped open and I walked into what could only be described as a boy’s room. It looked like Esme kept this room in the condition that Halen would had left it when he went to college. Of course, this wasn’t their permanent residence, so that meant she put everything up whenever they moved.
Posters of popular bands of my own childhood were hung on the wall, and all the boy memorabilia. It seemed that Halen was quite the collector when he was a child, of course, I would have been too had I grown up the way he did. Bugs and baseball cards were just part of his collection. There was also a chemistry set on the desk and I picked up one of the empty vials. I saw them all day in the lab, so I don’t know why it was of any interest to me.
“I collect-t-ed-ed all these on Lonoba.” He told me pointing to a frame that contained impaled bugs, “Thinks I was twelve.”
I nodded as I looked at the bugs and put the vial down. Halen collapsed on the bed with a groan, and I knew that I was winning. Being in his room had sobered me up some and I had realized that I had freely walked into a trap. Well, it would have been a trap had Halen not been so drunk. Of course, after hearing what Esme had to say, I wondered if Halen even knew that connotation of inviting a girl to his room.
Walking over to the bed, I laid down beside him with his arm under my head. Halen sat up a little to drink straight from the scotch bottle in his other hand. He put it on the night stand next to him after I turned down a chance to take a swig. “Halen?”
“Hmm?”
“Why did you reject me that night?”
He didn’t respond right away, but he knew what I was talking about. I wanted to know why when I offered myself to him did he only give me a cookbook disk, and then return to cooking. “I was told not to.” He mumbled.
“Huh?”
“Not good with people. Dad says too strong.” He seemed to be falling asleep, “I was too strong. Looked like I only waned sex. Dad said wait a couple months.” He was speaking on fragmented sentences.
“You didn’t want me to think you only wanted sex?” I asked, a little surprised by his answer.
He nodded his head and his eyes closed, after a few moments his breathing slowed and he was dead asleep. Propping myself up on my arm, I looked over his sleeping face. We had so many misunderstandings right away, it was almost like we were being forced apart. Somehow in the span of one afternoon everything had been cleared up.
He looked so handsome laying there beside me, and before I could understand what I was doing, I leaned over and gently kissed his lips. He was asleep so there was no harm done. When I pulled my head away, Halen’s eyes were looking back at me.
“I…”
A hand came up and reached around the back of my head to pull me back down. When I tried to fight him by pulling away, he pushed me onto my back and laid beside me. He looked at me for a long moment as if he was deciding whether this was right or not. His lips covered my own before I could tell him no. His kiss felt more angry then passionate, but it felt good to finally be touched by him again.
My alcohol induced lust didn’t allow me any more arguments. The moments shared between us were not that of loving partners, but of two drunks who desperately wanted to feel each other. Our clothes were pulled off in a matter of seconds, we didn’t even attempt to undress each other. Instead, we both removed our clothing as quickly as we could, before we returned to kiss and caressing one another.
I can’t really explain what happened after that, but I knew that I enjoyed every moment of it. I vaguely remembered worrying that his parents might come looking for us, but that worry was gone in a flash. All I wanted now was to be with him.
I awoke to the sounds of his soft breathes. My heart raced with fear as I jumped from the bed and hurriedly dressed myself. Heading down the stairs, Esme was sitting on the couch. She didn’t seem to be surprised to see me.
“Rushing out?” She asked as I tried to walk to the door as nonchalantly as I could.
“Could you…”
“Not mention anything about you being here or leaving when he wakes up?” She raised an eyebrow.
I shook my head, “I was going to say tell him that I had to go, but your way is better.”
“Your hair is a mess.” I heard her tell me as I headed out into the corridor.
I glanced down at my data pad and realized that it was only four in the morning. I jogged between elevators and shuttles until I reached my apartment. Once inside, I laid down on my bed and hit myself in the forehead. I couldn’t believe that I had let that happen. Halen was leaving in a few months, and I didn’t want to get myself involved with him. I would just have to pretend that it never happened. I decided this as I fell back asleep.
---***---
Less than one hour later the beeping started. Noooo! my head and body groaned. I glanced at the data pad as I rolled out of bed. Beat you to the lab. See you in 10. - Halen. It looked like we were both going to pretend that nothing happened. I tried waking myself up more with cold water so I didn't appear affected by last night. I was glad that there wouldn't be any awkwardness. Still, it would have been nice if I was the one to instigate the rule about pretending nothing happened and he had still shown interest in me this morning.
I didn't rush as I walked to the lab. I felt like there was cotton stuffed into all of the cavities in my head. When I entered the lab, the first thing I noticed was a box on my desk. Glancing over at Halen I walked up to open the box. My name was printed on a label from dispatch and the box sort of wiggled. Hurrying to cut the loose tape on top, I peaked inside. A stuffed windup chicken. No card. No note.
"That's mature." I held up the chicken and approached Halen's desk.
"What?" He looked up and seemed surprised to see me there.
"Nice gift." I wound up the chicken and let it cluck and peck it's way across his results.
He watched the chicken for a moment, "What gift? Can you get your chicken off my desk?" He went back to matching up columns.
"Seriously? You're going to act like you didn't put this chicken on my desk because I left early this morning?" I whispered fiercely.
"Snuck." He was frowning now but still not looking at me.
"What?"
"You snuck out. And no, I didn't give you a chicken. How juvenile do you think I am?"
"Shh! Do you want everyone to know?" He was talking in a perfectly normal voice, but I was nervous. I looked around at the others for a moment, none of them were looking at us.
"I'm sure that someone noticed us going up the stairs and also sure that they noticed us not coming down before everyone was gone. They know. These are brilliant scientists. Now please, I'm busy." He gestured to his colleagues who didn't even seem to notice us.
"Look, just admit that you gave me the chicken and I'll leave you alone." I said still speaking softly.
"No, I didn't." Halen got up and walked over by the refrigerators that held the samples. "If you're so interested in conversation, why don't you take this tray of samples back to the dispatch room and ask why we received samples for another team and where our rush samples are?" He handed me the tray and flitted his fingers at me, in essence, shooing me out the door.
I huffed out and wondered if I could be wrong about the chicken. Halfway down to the dispatch room I realized that I was still carrying it around. Stupid chicken! I tossed it into a trash compartment as I walked passed it.
Halen was doing a better job of pretending last night never happened, or maybe he was upset with me. I mean why would he argue with me about whether I left or snuck out? I shook my head, it didn’t matter. We are supposed to just be friends and we need to forget that last night ever happened. I needed to let it go and move on, despite the fact that my heart ached over the thought.
When the elevator doors opened I walked into the dispatch room and over to the service window. There were several but only one had anyone behind it, and the room was completely empty except for me.
"This tray doesn't belong to us. It belongs to Research 592.” I said as I set it down on the counter, “Also, we're looking for our rush tray for Research 562."
"Sorry about that ma'am. Let me check for you." The young man at the window seemed frazzled. He began to look up information on his monitor, while I read his tag, Christopher.
"Christopher, can you also check to see about a box for Private delivered sometime last night?"
"Yes, but just a minute. I can only do one thing at a time." He tried to sound like he was being respectful, but I heard the annoyed tone.
Maybe he's new, I thought.
"Oh, here it is! It looks like some idiot delivered your tray to 592 and 592's tray to you. They are just two floors up from you, can you go trade them?" He looked hopeful.
"I guess. Can you check that package for Private ?"
"Yes ma'am. Let's see...." He frowned at the screen and typed something else into it. "That's weird. It says that it was delivered to you last night, but there isn't a dispatch personnel signature either receiving it in here nor delivering it to you."
"What about a sender?" I asked.
“No, that's what I'm saying. There was no sender information on the label so I'm not sure how that got through the system without any dispatch employee having to sign for it."
"Is there anything you can tell me?"
“Yes, it came in here at 0114." So unless Halen slipped out of bed, found and purchased the chicken, and delivered it to dispatch he was off the hook. This was really bizarre.
---***---
I made my way up he elevator to Research 592 with the tray. When I entered the room all the scientists stopped what they were doing and stared at me. They all looked like squirrels that are chewing on their acorns, and then suddenly sensing danger they stuck up their heads.
“May I help you?” A deep voice asked from beside me.
I turned to the head researchers desk. A man of middle eastern decent sat behind the desk, he was quite handsome and seemed to have a friendly demeanor. If all researchers were good looking, then I may have to go back to college. I thought to myself as I offered up the tray.
“We received your tray, and dispatch said you got ours.” I told him.
Standing up, he took the tray from me and looked at the label. “Huh.” He grunted before heading toward the refrigerator and taking out the one they received that morning. “Looks like you’re right.” He put the tray into the fridge and brought me the other one. “Thank you for bringing it up to us. I don’t think we could have waited until dispatch got around to it again.”
“Anytime.” I told him with a smile as I took the tray from him.
“You’re Private , right?”
I looked up at him a little surprised, “Yes, sir. I am.”
“What are you doing running errands for a research time, I thought you worked for the captain?”
I sighed, “It’s a long story, but I am temporarily reassigned there until we deliver them safely to their destination.”
“I see.” He frowned, “My team was the one that collected those samples from Yulberia, they haven’t contacted us with any questions. Tell them that we are open for discussion.”
I gave a nod, “Yes, sir… I’m sorry, I don’t know your name.”
“Doctor Kahil Al-Fulani.” He held out his hand to me and I shook it. I wanted to slap myself after he said his name, because I knew exactly who he was. “I’m surprised you don’t know my name, we are the on board research group. I’ve been here for three years now.”
“I’m sorry, doctor. I didn’t even recognize you until said your name. The captain is very impressed by you and your work.” I bit my lip for a moment, “I am very sorry.”
“You needn’t worry, we’ve never been formally introduced. I’ve only seen you a handful of times and that was when you were bringing things in during our meetings with the captain.” He smiled and some light dimples showed on his cheeks.
“It was nice meeting with you… again. I’ll let Doctor Rhodes know about your offer, after their recent find I would think they would like to talk to the people who went planet side. Bye, doctor.”
“Kahil, please, and before you go…”
I turned back to face him. He looked over the rest of the group, and stepped closer to me so they couldn’t hear him.
“I’ve been meaning to start a discussion with you for a while now. Would you join me for dinner tonight?”
I was a little taken back by his sudden request, “Dinner?”
“At my room or would that make you too uncomfortable? A more public place perhaps?”
I shook my head, “Are you cooking?” I couldn’t believe I just asked that.
He gave a nod, “Of course.”
“I haven’t had a home cooked meal… well, since I left home. So, certainly.” I smiled though inside I was asking myself what I was doing.
“Let us meet outside the 562‘s lab, yes? Around six?”
“You don’t have to come down and get me.”
He chuckled, “To be honest, I had hoped you would introduce me to Doctor Rhodes, but if that is too presumptuous…”
“No, no. That’s fine.” I gave my goodbye and headed out into the corridor. I asked myself over and over why I had accepted, but the answer was only too obvious. Kahil was a good looking man, who was stationed on the ship. He was a military researcher, not private like Halen was. I needed someone to help me get my mind off of Halen, and after the jerky way he treated me this morning, he deserved it.
---***---
“Here.” I set the tray on Halen’s desk.
“Thank you.” He picked it up and placed it into the fridge.
I grinned as I turned around to walk back to my desk, I was suddenly blushing over the fact that Doctor Al-Fulani had asked me out. I had heard others say what a handsome man he was, but he never showed any interest in women.
“What are you so happy about?” Halen asked before I walked away.
“Nothing, I just need to be out of here by six. I told him.” Then headed back over to my desk. Sitting down, I saw another package on my desk.
"Who put this here?" I asked nobody in particular. A couple of people looked up and shrugged.
"Dispatch." Doctor Rhodes answered and scowled at me. He didn’t like it when I interrupted people from their work.
"Oh." I had hoped that this one was hand delivered so I could get some description. The box wasn't moving but I still opened it cautiously. Seeing a box of my favorite chocolates, I lifted the lid. Each of the pieces had a bite taken out of it and there was a note. I thought you would like to share these with me.
I suppose you could argue that if someone else is willing to bite them all in half, they must not be poisoned, but to me it just seemed weird and gross. I grabbed them off my desk.
"I'm headed to dispatch. Does anybody need anything taken down?" I spoke loudly enough to be heard but not so loudly as to stop production.
"Yes! This please." Doctor Fields raised a package and waited for me to come fetch it. I noticed that it was meticulously labeled already. Clearly she was experienced enough with dispatch to know that they mixed things up on a regular basis. The recipient jumped out at me. Pvt.
"Is this for me?" I asked her.
"What?" She looked up startled. "For you?"
"Yes, this is my name." I pointed at my name on the label and tried not to look irritated.
"Oh!" Then she must have noticed my name badge. "Where did you come from?"
"I work here! I was introduced to everyone months ago." I couldn't believe this woman! I heard Halen chuckling behind me, but I didn’t have time to acknowledge him.
"Sorry, I didn't know. I get sort of caught up in my work." Her cheeks blushed furiously. "I got that this morning with my name on it, but when I opened it, this box was lying there with a note to forward back to dispatch."
"Do you still have the outer box?" I was hoping there might be some clue as to who had sent it.
"Yes, it's right here." She handed it to me and went back to her work.
I looked at the return label and it said Captain Vasquez. What?!
"Thanks." I murmured under my breath and walked out the door. I ignored that Halen had tried to say something to me as I left. I was on a mission and couldn’t be bothered by him at this point.
---***---
As I walked down the corridor with the bitten chocolates under one arm, Vasquez’s box under the other, and I attempted to open the box that Fields had given me. When the box of candy fell from under my arm, I gasped as it spilt onto the floor.
“Son of a…” I grumbled and set down the boxes to gather up the candy from the metallic corridor.
Once all the candy was back in its box, I sat down against the wall to open my box. This corridor was never busy, so I didn’t think I would be bother anyone. I should have opened it back at the lab. I ripped off the tape and opened the box to find several framed pictures, all of me. Photos of me in the lab, in the captain’s office, at the cantina, and eating in the mess hall. No one else were in these photos but myself and a few elbows or backs of people in the background.
I pressed my lips together, “What the hell…” I grumbled, as I stood up and gathered the boxes up.
Captain Vasquez’s office wasn’t far away and I stepped inside. A young private was sitting where I had normally sat four months ago.
“May I help you?” She asked in a soft voice that for no reason at all annoyed me.
“Uh yeah, maybe you can help me. This box…” I pulled it from under my arm and handed it to her. “came from this office to Doctor Fields, and I was wondering if it was the captain that sent it.”
She didn’t take the box from me, “It came in another box and we sent it out after reading the note to do so.”
I stared at the woman for a moment, “Can I see the other box?”
“It’s been disposed of. Try dispatch they should have a record of it.”
“Do you remember where it came from?” I asked a little frustrated when she went back to typing.
She shook her head.
With a sigh, I headed back out of the office and made my way to dispatch. It wasn’t far from the captain’s office. Heading inside, the same young man sat behind the window.
“Can you track these packages, please?” I put the boxes on the counter.
He picked up Vasquez’s box first, “Hmm.” He frowned, “Looks like it’s the same as the other package.” He came up with similar results for the others.
“Is there a way to track similar packages that don’t have a signature?”
He gave a nod, “Thirteen results.” Looking back over to me, he wanted to see what I wanted to do.
“Can you write down the recipients for me?”
“Sorry, but this is private mail and you don’t have authorization.”
I frowned at him, “So, what I am supposed to sit here and wait for more packages with weird crap to come to my desk before I can get any information on it?”
“Afraid so.”
I glared at the man for a moment, “Fine throw those away for me, please.” I grunted as I headed out of dispatch and back to the lab.
“!” I turned around and saw Keller heading toward me with a package.
“This came into engineering, it’s address to you.” He held it out for me. “I was bringing it in to dispatch.”
“You have got to be kidding me?” I snatched it away from him, and opened it up right there.
“A joke book?” Keller questioned when I pulled the thin book out.
It was rare to find books on paper, most people read on their data pads. “Vulgar jokes. This must have cost a lot to get their hands on, what the hell…” I trailed off as I headed back toward the lab, leaving Keller to wonder what was going on in the hallway.
"Hey, , wait up!" I was surprised that Keller had followed me almost all the way back to the lab.
"Not now.” I snapped, no doubt he either wanted to talk about our relationship or get his nose into my own business. “I've got to figure out if this wacko is dangerous or not and I also need to get back to work." I added that last bit half mindedly.
“I can help you..." Keller was staring at his boots.
"Keller, I can handle it! I was trained just like you and if you remember, I passed with higher marks than you. Just let it alone." I hated how some of the guys always assumed that I was too weak to take care of myself just because I was girl.
"Fine." Keller walked away and I thought I heard him chuckling to himself.
Whatever. I knew that Keller is strange so I thought nothing of it. He probably found humor in the whole weird gift thing anyway. He was always getting in trouble during basic for laughing during the most inappropriate times.
---***---
The rest of the morning passed in a blur. I delivered a few things but one of the researchers actually asked for my help with some data entry as well. I realized that it was 1:30pm only because my eyes were blurring. Looking around, I found I was alone in the lab. There was a note by my desk. You were so intent on your work that you didn't answer when I called your name six times. Come to the cantina for lunch with the gang if you want. - Doctor Rhodes.
They always took late lunches, of course, after dealing with the data entry I could see how they got so caught up in it all. I was too tired to get food so I headed for my room for a quick nap before work began again. When I arrived, I saw a missed delivery slip from dispatch sticking out of my message container. I perked up! Maybe this would be another package and give me more clues. It'd been sent to my room after all the rest were sent to the lab.
Hurrying to catch the elevator, I didn't see the shadow watching me from behind one of the public data kiosks. As I stepped out of the elevator, I noticed Trevor leaving dispatch.
"Hey Trev, what are you doing? Sending a package to your girlfriend?" I teased. We all knew that Trevor didn't date scientists or military women so the only chance he had to get a girlfriend is if there was someone visiting friends or family aboard Elysium.
"Yeah, something like that." He looked uncomfortable to have been caught at dispatch.
"Night off?" I asked. Normally he was starting his shift around this time, and for some reason I really wanted to know what he was doing down here.
"Yeah, and I missed my sister's birthday so I'm sending a little moon-rock necklace back to her that I picked up from one of the scientists who just got back from one of Saturn's moons."
"Oh she'll love that!" We had met Trevor's sister a few times. She was a very sweet girl, a little bit shy. Nothing at all like her older brother, who didn’t mind talking to anyone at any time. The entire time she had been here she had hid behind him, except for the nights that we went back to Trevor’s room and all got drunk. She bloomed for a few hours. There were a couple rumors that Keller had slept with her, which caused tension between Trevor and him for a while. She admitted that it never happened, but I was still skeptical about the whole thing.
"Yep, well, I’ve got to go." Trevor hopped on the elevator and waved.
I waved back and stepped up to the dispatch window. I shoved the slip under the window and waited.
"There is no package here for you." My old pal, Christopher, stated matter-of-factly. "This is a fake slip."
"What? It was in my message container when I got off work."
"If you look closely, you'll see that someone scanned a real dispatch slip and then reprinted it with your information on it. See? They forgot that part of the tracking code is the send date. It's from five months ago."
"Thanks, anyway." I waved half-heartedly and waited for the elevator. Suddenly I was back at my room. I must have been more tired than I thought. Opening the door, I saw a package on the floor.
Edited by Bursillys
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