9 Checking the Wheels
Her gait had almost returned to normal. There was still a lingering stiffness in her shoulders and side that reminded her not to overextend herself, but the pain had dulled into little more than a nuisance with the aid of medication and stabilization from her suit. Hailey had finally relented enough to allow her unrestricted movement about the ship, provided she was suited up and after extracting a promise that Ava would report immediately if anything began hurting worse instead of better.
Ava took the first ladder well in the corridor. She held the sides of the ladder loosely and slid down, using the insides of her boots to slow her descent slightly. She had been practicing this to get it right, the way she had before her injury.
Ava planted her feet on the grating of the hallway and bent her knees to absorb the impact before bouncing back up. Not as painless as she remembered, but still a benchmark improvement, and no one needed to catch her.
Ava turned and headed down the Main, passing the galley and mess. She could hear Angelo singing some song but couldn’t quite make out the words, though it sounded familiar.
As Ava neared the equipment locker, Alex McCarty emerged carrying a data sheet with her helmet tucked beneath one arm.
Alex almost bowled Ava over, but she managed to dance back out of the way.
“Sorry… Captain?” Alex asked, her face shifting from distant, to startled, to a cool, playful smile in fractions of a second.
“Not anytime soon,” Ava smiled, not because of what Alex had said, but instead from a sense of pride at having nimbly avoided the collision.
Alex barely slowed as she continued toward the mess. Ava looked back and watched her go.
“Good work today,” Ava called.
Alex paused at the door and turned back. “Thank you, Ava. It was the team. They are a solid group,” Alex said before exiting the Main.
Alex had impressed her during the asteroid recovery. She had been calm and communicated effectively. She did everything by the book and in as structured a way as Ava could imagine it being done.
Ava’s team had needed to improvise and come up with solutions, at one point disembarking Juarez with an asteroid to help speed up the loading effort. Her team functioned well when things didn’t fit neatly into a box, but they looked sloppy compared to the execution B Team had pulled off today.
Kane seemed to appreciate both approaches equally.
Ava watched Alex go, her smile faltering. She turned to proceed down the Main but instead leaned into the doorway of the equipment locker, hoping to see her team.
She found Ethan.
Ethan sat against the bulkhead beside an open equipment locker. A half-disassembled cutting torch rested in his lap while spare components were arranged in careful rows across the deck.
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“You look awful,” Ava observed.
Ethan looked up with tired eyes and smiled.
“You’re no Gareth grouse yourself,” Ethan responded.
“You doing okay?” Ava asked, her smile having fled, replaced by concern.
Ethan looked worn down and had since they recovered the artifact, but it was worse every time she saw him. He had been putting on a brave face, but the mask had slipped after her accident in the ladder well. She could tell he wasn’t sleeping.
Ethan started to reply, but Ava held up a hand to ward off the response she knew would be
I’m fine.
“I’m sorry. Obviously, you aren’t. Can you tell me why, or what I can do?” Ava asked.
“Ava, I am fine. Really.”
Ethan started to stand, and the pieces of his torch slipped from his lap. He swore and began picking them up and pushing them back into place.
Ava watched him in silence as he assembled the cutting torch and test-fired it.
It worked.
“Be honest with me. You aren’t okay. Okay Ethan doesn’t assemble and disassemble his tools for fun. Stressed-out Ethan does that. Stressed-out Ethan is not okay Ethan. Do you follow?” Ava asked.
Ava knew Ethan hadn’t been eating with the others in the mess, but now she suspected he was skipping meals altogether. He had a large frame with muscle generously allocated across it, but his cheeks seemed sunken in a way she didn’t recall.
She could tell something wasn’t just bothering him. It was really eating at him.
She felt ill at the thought of him struggling like this, and at the thought that he didn’t trust her enough to tell her.
“Ava, please. I just need…” Ethan began.
Ava cut him off.
She knelt in front of him and hugged him.
Ethan froze, his muscles tense like a frightened animal, but then he relaxed and hugged her back.
Ava could feel his warmth against her and hear his heart beating in his broad chest. He felt so powerful but also tender. She had known him for most of her life. He was her oldest friend.
Which was why it shocked her when he kissed her.
His hands were at her back, and he turned his face toward hers and kissed her.
She froze, her body sending three very different signals. One wanted to melt into the kiss and experience the warmth of his body against hers. Another wanted to punch him square in the mouth and chastise him. The third wanted to hold him and take away all of his pain.
She felt herself beginning to kiss him back before tearing away and jumping to her feet.
She turned and stomped into the hallway.
Peters, who had been standing there and had likely seen everything that transpired, quickly moved out of her way.
She turned back.
“We will talk about this later!” she said sternly.
She tried to say something else but couldn’t think of anything.
“Whoa-ho-ho. You know, Ava, I’ve been pretty sad lately too,” Peters said before he could stop himself.
Ava spun to slap him across the face but pulled up short and glared at Peters.
“What the hell?” asked a slightly shocked Peters. “He’s the one who did it, not me.”
Ava took a calming breath, but it was largely unsuccessful. Still, she managed to say, “I’m sorry. You’re right. Pass it on.”
She punched him hard in the shoulder.
His suit absorbed most of the impact, but Ava still stumbled backward.
She turned and stormed down the hallway to the next ladder and dropped down it, barely remembering to reach out and grab the sides as she fell.
She landed with a harder thunk than she had on the previous ladder and fell backward onto her butt and then her back.
She lay there on the floor, breathing heavily, her face red as she tried to piece together everything that had just happened.