12 Holding Court
Ava had barely enough time to become bored as she sat staring at “the block,” as Curry had called it, before she heard the door open from the Main.
She heard Peters’s loud, somewhat clumsy footfalls as he took the stairs two at a time. Peters was tall and long-limbed, and though he seemed a fool, Ava had often wondered whether he was playing it up or if he truly was as oblivious as he first appeared. There were moments when she thought she caught a glint of intellect in his eyes, as though he were in on the joke and no one else was.
“Hey, Ava,” he greeted.
“Jacob Peters,” Ava responded evenly from her chair.
She slowly rotated to face him.
Peters stood straighter, his aloofness fading.
“Listen, I didn’t say anything to the captain. I really wasn’t trying to start anything back there,” he implored, his eyes almost begging her to believe him.
Ava did believe him.
She did not respond.
“The captain made me show him my arm and tell him what happened. You know how he can be when he wants information. He knew everything already, anyhow. Look, I deserved it for running my mouth. It just came out. It was supposed to be funny,” he tried to explain.
“How?”
“What?” he asked.
“How was it supposed to be funny?” she asked.
He looked genuinely confused but tried his best to explain.
“Because Ethan has been out of sorts and moping around, and then you kissed him, so I was saying I was depressed and pretending that meant you would kiss me. Like that was the reason you kissed him. But I was joking. I wouldn’t have expected you to actually kiss me. That was the joke part of it,” he finished dumbly.
“So it was funny because…?” Ava asked.
“Well, I guess it didn’t end up being funny, but it was supposed to be. I think maybe the premise wasn’t clear. I don’t really think it is worth trying to fix as a joke. I’m not trying to get hit again,” he said.
Ava thought for a moment.
“What was the premise of the joke?” she asked, curiosity overcoming her scathing indignation.
Peters’s eyes lit up as he saw an opportunity to explain himself.
“Well, the premise is that Ethan was sad, so he got to kiss you, and if I was sad, I would get to kiss you. But that is only the premise on the surface. Really, it is also a joke pretending that it makes sense. Like if someone saw another person hit their head and then find a credit chip, so they hit their own head hoping they would also find one. So obviously, you kissed him—”
“He kissed me,” Ava corrected flatly.
“Oh, sure. Well, that makes everything fall apart. Unless we frame it as him getting to kiss you because he was sad. But either way, him being sad isn’t why you let him kiss you,” Peters finished.
He seemed proud that he had explained it so well.
Ava’s head had begun hurting near the start of his explanation, and she was now massaging her temples.
“Okay. In the future, try not to be bad at humor, and I will refrain from hitting you. Is that a deal?” she asked.
“I can only promise to try,” Peters said uncertainly.
“That will have to be good enough,” she said before changing the subject. “How is Ethan?”
“Oh, yeah. Not good,” he said.
“Elaborate.”
Peters told Ava that Ethan had been distant with him and Juarez ever since they brought the artifact aboard. He had stopped taking meals with them and spent most of his time either in the barracks or down in the cargo hold. He simply didn’t seem like himself.
Whenever they worked together, Ethan tried to act normal, but he was slowly becoming more and more exhausted.
“I am actually really worried about him. I was hoping you two getting together would cheer him up. It has been obvious for a while. Even to me,” Peters said.
Ava had been listening in rapt silence, but at this last statement, she buried her face in her hands and fought to hold back a shout.
Instead, what emerged was a muffled, “We are not together. We hugged, and he kissed me.”
“Well, it looked like you hugged him,” Peters corrected.
“Fine. I hugged him, but he kissed me, and it has not yet been addressed,” she said through an armored hand covering clenched teeth.
If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.
“Well, you two need to get on that. I should get out of your way. Unless you need me to stay,” he offered.
“Go.”
Ava was alone.
Her blood pressure returned to normal, and her breathing calmed. She now had the full, unbridled opportunity to slip into complete boredom.
She waited for Ethan.
As she waited, she tried to plan what she would say to him. She planned to tell him he was an idiot and that what he had done was uncalled for and unwanted. She was his superior on the crew and couldn’t fraternize with him. It wasn’t proper.
Of course, that wasn’t necessarily true if she considered her father’s example.
Still, she wanted to beg Ethan to be content with being her friend. They had known each other since childhood. He was the only friend she still had from those years.
He was basically her only friend.
If he left her now, she couldn’t even think about what that would mean.
She also entertained another possibility.
What if they did pursue this?
What if she allowed him to take her into his arms and kiss her again?
She had not hated it. She couldn’t convince herself that she had.
She weighed her options. She even considered pretending nothing had happened but dismissed the idea as the cowardly thought it was.
Ethan needed her, or thought he needed her.
Perhaps there was something else happening, and he was as confused as she was.
She waited for Ethan.
“He is just confused. He doesn’t know what he wants. There is something wrong with him. Maybe he is sick, or something got the better of him. He might not have even meant to do it. Maybe I looked like one of the girls he has been taking home recently. He became confused and kissed me, not realizing it was me,” she said aloud to herself.
Her face flushed with anger at the thought of random women leaving with Ethan.
Ava set her jaw, settling on that explanation.
Ethan had confused her for someone else in his exhausted state. She had only momentarily been another woman to him.
The thought did not soothe her mind.
How many women had he been with? How often? Did he know anything about them? Did she know them?
“I doubt it,” she answered aloud to the one question she felt safe confronting. “I barely know anyone anymore.”
Ava huffed and leaned back in her chair.
She felt miserably alone.
The cargo-bay workers had cleared out for the day to assist elsewhere on the ship while the engineers monitored Ava and the artifact’s reactions to her.
Ava sat ignoring the artifact and focused on the door to the Main, where she believed Ethan would emerge. She stewed in her thoughts and waited.
She stood and began walking circles around the artifact. As she walked, she reached out and ran one hand along its rough surface, though her attention remained fixed on the door.
When she tired of walking in circles, she leaned against the block and allowed herself to slide to the ground. She sat with her back pressed against the hard surface and began questioning whether Ethan was going to come to her at all.
She felt warmth against her back and relaxed slightly.
She pulled her helmet free from her hip and put it on, carefully tucking her hair inside so the seal could close properly. She pulled up her suit diagnostics.
What she saw confirmed that the temperature change was being detected by her suit. Her instruments were working. She scrolled through the recorded data and noted that the temperature increase had begun several minutes earlier, though she had been too distracted to notice.
Ava scooted forward and turned to look at the block.
She activated her suit’s external speakers and addressed it.
“What are you?” she asked.
The artifact did not respond.
She could see through her helmet’s HUD that the area where she had been leaning was still warmer than the ambient temperature but was rapidly cooling to match the rest of the surface.
She reached out and placed one hand against the artifact.
Where she made contact, the temperature increased.
She held her hand there for several seconds before removing it. A glowing handprint remained on the surface, visible only through her helmet’s infrared sensors.
Ava slowly traced one finger across the surface. Wherever her finger touched, the material warmed and cooled in its wake.
Ava found it deeply strange but could not understand why it behaved this way or what purpose it served.
“We are never going to understand you, are we?” she asked.
The artifact remained silent.
“No,” she answered herself. “I suppose we won’t.”
Ava eventually returned to leaning against the block and allowed herself to enjoy the warmth it emitted.
Being cozy and warm was a luxury. The suit was excellent at maintaining body temperature but would not expend more energy than necessary. Ava’s normal ship attire was insulating, but her small frame did not hold or generate enough heat for her to ever feel truly comfortable.
Only tolerable.
Now, leaning against the ancient object, she felt extravagantly comfortable.
Her eyelids grew heavy, even as they occasionally flickered open to check whether the door to the Main had opened.
She fell asleep there in her suit, helmet still on, snoring softly through the external speaker system.
She was asleep when Ethan reluctantly stepped through the hatch from the Main and made his way down the two flights of stairs.
He walked slowly but purposefully until he stood in front of Ava. He moved to lightly kick her booted foot but thought better of it.
He crouched before her and watched for several minutes as he considered what to do next.
He reached out to tap her shoulder before withdrawing his hand, doubting himself.
He sighed, stood, and turned to leave.
“I’m sorry,” Ava mumbled.
Ethan froze in place. His entire body tensed as though he were about to bolt and was forcing himself to remain still.
“I ate all of the citron biscuits. They were mine. I wanted to share,” she continued.
Ethan turned back toward her, confused.
Ava had slumped to one side, bent at an angle he would have found intolerable. She began snoring more loudly.
He couldn’t remember the last time he had seen her like this. Not since they were young, he was sure. Before he had left to begin earning for his family. When life had been free of most cares.
He had grown up faster than Ava.
By necessity.
Ethan smiled wearily, then turned away and made his way back toward the stairs and his duties.