I don't have a lot of time.
But, because I'm the paranoid sort, I wanted to get this out before I go. In case we don't come back. Happy New Year, first off. I have to tell you about Lin and Masaru.
They're cousins through marriage. Knew each other from before, but briefly when they were kids. They discovered their connection at the Halloween Party and became fast friends quickly. I thought automatically of course that they had decided to become a couple, but as it turns out, I was again, wrong. When Lin attempted to get me involved, I interpreted it as naïve and sort of like she was rubbing it in my face - because n hind sight, who DIDN'T know that I had a thing for 'Rex' Masaru, the mysterious violinist?
Which brings me to the next bit. There was no real party, no craft event that Lin was running. She and Julia walked with me towards the general direction of the crafty rec room, and then they told me to wait in the hall because the forgot something. As I waited there, I heard Masaru playing. I thought about waiting, but honestly, it wasn't like they wouldn't be able to find me, so I meandered to where I heard the violin.
When I turned the corner, the rec room was pretty dark except for a few glow-sticks dangling from the corners of the room, and the craft table was covered and laid out for a dinner for two. When he saw me, Masaru stopped playing, smiled and bowed. He actually bowed. And then he held the chair out for me. I think I muttered something about how the girls were waiting for me, and he just sort of laughed.
"I asked them to help me bring you here."
I think I was staring because he continued. "After you got angry with Lin, she and Julia told me that you... well that you had feelings for me."
I know, at this time, I was red, and still did not respond. He poured me a glass of wine. Opened the trays of food to present me with some beautifully prepared food. Sushi I think and some other little delectables. He served them out. At that point blurted out an awkward (yet sincere) apology for my behavior.
He sat down opposite me, raised a glass. "Happy American New Year, Nora. May we both prosper and grow." He smiled. I smiled. We had dinner. And at Midnight he walked me back to my room (Among an eerily vacant part of the ship, not even CRAVE said anything) and he gave me my first real New Years Kiss. (that I actually enjoyed anyway.)
I pulled out of the kiss light as a feather, dizzy and smiling, sort of delirious, and on the verge of manic excitement. I couldn't hear anything except the cliche hammering of my heart, and I was watching his hand come up in slow motion to press against my cheek in that old movie romantic kind of way, and then the red lights of the emergency proximity alarm started flashing, and the alarm system kicked on and blared, a box resting just above out heads.
Both of jumped back and our heads whipped around and Julia and Gilda flew out of our room, one throwing on her nurse coat and the other strapping on military grade plate armor panels for light infantry. (She told me all about it drunkenly after the Christmas party. Regardless of me being in a foul mood I listened and remembered rather well.)
CRAVE said over the intercom:
"Unidentified Vessel approaching port side. Emitting mid to high levels of radiation. Broadcasting mid-range communication. Consulting with Xilin Cthi Linzdar on linguistic translation."
Masaru and I exchanged looks. Capain Peterson came onto the intercom as we all rushed to our respective stations.
"This is Captain Peterson. All crew report to your main operating stations. Sargent Wesley Hadley, MSR3 Pearson, MSR3 Horne, FER2 Callucci and MSR2 Nora Green please report to the bridge."
I felt like I was under water. We haven't been out here very long, but we found something! It was both exciting and absolutely terrifying.
After a mind-numbing twenty minutes of jargon and a blaring broadcast of some sort of snarling, angry demonic growls and barks, like hissing dogs, Captain Peterson and Zee determined that it was a breed of alien called (in Human translation) Gryflin. Except this ship was sending out a distress broadcast.
Masaru went to work guiding the ship to a docking sequence with the drifting vessel, everyone seemed very serious - and the reason I was there?
(Along with Zee, Sargent Hadley, Gilda and Horne were the muscle, and Flight Engineer Anthony Callucci. His specialty is living conditions and atmospheric adjustments. He's a biologist and ecologist of genius level. He's quick witted, sharp tongued, and about 5'3" and built like a dumpy barrel. Zee was coming because he knew their language relatively well, and would be familiar with their technology, which was mainly what our system was fabricated after)
I am going with them onto the ship so I can run analysis on their systems. Because I'm the only analyst we have on board. I could hypothetically read their system and figure out where the problem is.
SO yeah. In case I don't come back - Masaru is the bestest thing on the planet, I have great friends, and I miss rain. Wish me luck.
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