Aika Takahashi

With the spacewalk complete and the station back to normal, the two men quickly headed over to the mess hall. They had been on the EVA for over six hours and another hour was spent pre and post EVA, so they were both famished. Not to mention that EVAs were strenuous affairs both due to the physicality of the work and the stress involved. When they finally arrived, there were six other people already there.

“Wow,” commented Reece. “Half the station is here.”

Well, yeah, when in zero-G, you either ate self-contained snacks or you wait until it’s over,” replied Angel. “Eating during zero-G can and usually does get messy. So, after six hours, quite a few of us are bound to be famished.”

“Fair enough.”

Reece noticed that the two biologists Aldo and Zia were eating at one table with Taylor and Sora, while Thato and Naeva ate at another with Jared. Both Angel and Reece grabbed the quickest meals to prepare, the MREs, and sat down with the latter three. Thato and Naeva watched with amusement as the two men wolfed down their food with gusto. Jared just looked disgusted and angry.

“Worked up an appetite, huh?” observed Naeva as she studied Reece.

Thato laughed out loud.

“So, how was your first EVA?” he asked Reece with a grin on his face. “When four hours passed and you weren’t back yet, we started taking bets on whether Angel had lost you and didn’t know how to inform the rest of us of your demise.”

Mild chuckles filled the mess hall. Reece once again speculated if being trapped up here for months on end could drive a person ‘just a bit mad’. They sure found a lot of things much funnier than they actually were, in any event.

“No, nothing as exciting as that. We just had a lot of systems to cover before Angel and his crew head back to earth.”

Thato smiled, while Jared rolled his eyes.

“What’s this guy’s problem?” thought Reece. “I’ve never done anything to him, maybe he’s just an ass. Only one way to find out.”

Reece was about to challenge the guy when Thato quickly cut in. It was as if he had noted the friction between the two and sought to defuse it. He did that by simply replying to Reece.

“Fair enough, we wouldn’t want a system to malfunction and you not knowing what to do about it. I, for one, am glad that you two are taking your job so seriously. I would expect nothing less from a pair of consummate professionals.”

“Now you just sound like you’re buttering us up for something,” laughed Angel.

As Angel and Thato bantered back and forth, Reece glanced over at the other table to see what they were up to. They all seemed to be eating quickly and quietly, except Sora. She was quiet but was only picking at her food. In fact, she was white as a ghost and had a haunted look on her face. Reece wondered if she were privy to the rat-thing that he had just seen a few hours ago. It would certainly explain her pallid demeanor. Reece decided to seek her out later and see if she would give any indication as to what was bothering her. Returning his attention to his own table, Reece noticed that Naeva was studying him again.

“What?” asked Reece flatly.

“Oh...nothing.”

The way Naeva replied indicated it was not “nothing”. Reece wondered if she too was suspicious of the biologists and what they were up to, or if instead, she was somehow also involved. He decided to let it go for now. The outgoing engineer had really gotten into his head and now he was seeing schemes and plots everywhere. Regardless, he was uncomfortable with all the people around and was ready to get out of there.

“Angel, are you ready to get back to it?”

“Whoa, you’re a glutton for punishment. Sure, let’s clean up and get after it,” Angel replied before quickly gulping down his water. With the meal finished, the two men cleaned up their table.

“Take care. Thanks for the company,” Reece called back as they left.

A jumble of goodbyes followed Reece and Angel down the hall as they went off for more training. Now that they were back inside, Angel acted as if nothing had happened. Instead, he and Reece went over every system on the station that they hadn’t already trained on. Every now and then, Angel would throw out a tidbit of information that wasn’t in the manuals. Information that could come in handy under the right conditions. When they had finally finished, it was a little after dinner time.

“You ready to grab something to eat from the mess hall?” asked Angel once he had secured the bolts on the station’s primary air purifier access panel.

“Nah,” said Reece, not feeling like getting into another group conversation so soon. “I need to update my journal while all of this is still fresh in my mind. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure it’s all relevant to my duties.”

That last bit Reece added on to put Angel at ease. He didn’t want the other man to worry about him writing down what they had seen in a journal that anyone could potentially come across and read.

“Sure thing. Don’t take too long though, you’ll throw your meal schedule completely off.”

Reece merely chuckled and waved Angel off. For his part, Angel gave him a quick thumbs up and waved before turning and leaving for the mess hall. Reece entered the sleeping quarters and fetched his journal out of his belongings. He hadn’t used it yet, so set about updating everything that had happened since lift-off that was relevant to his job. Even using shorthand, it took Reece the better part of two hours to finish and by the time he was done, he was ravenous again.

“I gotta work on my time management,” Reece thought to himself as he made his way down to the mess hall.

By the time he got there, it had been nearly seven hours since he last ate. Angel was right. His meal schedule was definitely messed up. He would have to work on rectifying that. He could hear laughter from the mess hall as he entered. Inside sat Pasha who was in the middle of a deep belly laugh as Thomas regaled him with some story. Aika was there too and even she seemed amused by the good-natured man’s antics as she had a cute half-smile on her face. It vanished instantly when she noticed Reece enter and was replaced with a slight blush as she focused on her food, a mix of fresh greens and a couple slices of bread.

Reece also noticed how they all chose to dress casually. Aika still wore the bottom of the uniform, but only wore a black sleeveless undershirt on top which didn’t help much to hide her ample bosom. She had one of the matching pieces of her uniform, the thin flight jacket top, tied around her waist. It wasn’t uncommon for astronauts to dress informally. Reece noticed that Thomas and Pasha were both dressed the same way as Aika, except they wore t-shirts.

“Hey, Danielson,” shouted Pasha from across the module. “You’ve got to join us. Thomas has some of the best stories. I never thought an Australian could be so funny.”

“Sure,” replied Reece as Thomas balled up a small chunk of bread and threw it at Pasha, hitting him in the forehead. “Just let me grab some dinner.”

Pasha promptly picked up the stray piece of food and popped it into his mouth. “Hey, I’m not about to be wasteful.”

“Eww,” said Aika with a sickened look on her face.

Reece tried ignoring their antics while grabbing some greens and another MRE that he could quickly break into. A cup of water later and Reece was seated with the three as Thomas continued describing his native Australia in the funniest ways possible. Pasha was right, Thomas was a great storyteller. Reece ate as Thomas regaled them with tale after tale. He used the time to try and normalize the prior events of the day in order to cope.

Although the zombie-rat thing was horrific, it was just a horrible biological experiment. Reece knew they must be running experiments on the station. Why else would there be biologists here? He tried to convince himself that this was normal, and he mostly succeeded in it. As for the conspiracy, who knows. Maybe Angel was just paranoid. He’d keep his eyes open, but he wouldn’t go off the deep end trying to chase down something that could be a total fantasy. Despite his darkening thoughts, Reece found himself enjoying the company of the three fellow astronauts.

About halfway through Reece’s meal, Thomas and Pasha said their goodbyes and went off to take their shift in the control room. Everyone shared the duty once they had been aboard the station for a good month. They typically had two people on duty at any given time. The crew believed in redundancy in just about everything. This was especially important as there was no redundancy in their skill sets, so other than the 'special projects' specialists, everyone was critical to the successful fulfillment of the mission. Reece looked across the small table at his last remaining companion, Aika.

“Hey there. Do you work out every morning?” asked Reece as he tried to make the young woman feel a little more comfortable by breaking the ice.

“Uh, yes. I do, “she replied. “And do you also work out each morning?”

“As much as I can. It depends on how busy I am, but I work out most days for sure.”

That seemed to satisfy her as she nodded and took another bite of her bread. Reece returned to his own meal, taking a bite of greens. They weren’t bad, for greens.

“Were these grown in the garden here on the station?”

Aika nodded as she continued to chew on her bread. “Yeah, a few of us take care of the garden. Not everyone has a green thumb,” she said between bites. “How are your gardening skills?”

“Well, I’m a bit rusty, but I grew up gardening with my mother. We even participated in a small farmer’s market for a few years.”

Aika seemed to ponder something. “You should sign up for a few shifts. We post a monthly schedule outside the greenhouse module.”

“I wouldn’t know where to begin with a community garden. How do you all coordinate with each other?”

The young woman considered this for a moment. She pushed her long dark hair back behind her ear and softly cleared her throat. “I could show you,” she said, pausing a moment. “Come to the greenhouse tomorrow after dinner, eighteen hundred hours. That’s my next shift and you should be done with your engineering duties by then, I would think.”

“Sure,” responded Reece when an idea struck. “How about I join you for dinner and we can head there together?”

Aika looked nervous for a second but quickly recovered. “Sure, that would be fine. I’ll be here at seventeen-thirty. Don’t be late.”

Reece gave the pretty woman---and Reece thought that she was very pretty---a genuine smile. “Works for me.”

Aika smiled back and noticeably relaxed. The two continued making small talk while they finished their dinner. She told him about growing up in Japan and how she got into systems administration before joining the fledgling Japanese Space Program. For his part, he told her about his love of engineering and how it had led to his role on the station after a stint in the E.U.S. Marines. Reece noticed how funny she was once she warmed up to someone. She even had a well-developed sense of sarcasm. He found himself quickly growing fond of her.

Their conversation meandered across topics from religion to cooking to politics to favorite past-times. Their food was long gone by the time Reece noticed he was starting to get tired. He looked at his watch and over three hours had passed.

“Well, we should get some rack, or we’ll be no good to anyone tomorrow,” he said with a smile.

Aika nodded her agreement. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize how late it was getting.”

“No worries. Hey, I enjoyed your company. We should do this again sometime. Maybe tomorrow?” Reece replied while making a silly face at Aika. They both laughed as they cleaned up the remains of their meals.

“Aika was an amazing young woman once you broke through her icy exterior,” thought Reece as he let the warmth and glow of their conversation soak into his bones.

He was glad he had started to get to know her. Having a like-minded friend or two would make the next twelve months definitely more bearable.

Once they had finished taking care of everything, they left the mess hall together and headed off to their respective quarters for some well-deserved rest. Before she was out of sight, Reece turned back for a moment.

“Goodnight, Aika.”

“Goodnight, Mr. Danielson,” Aika replied with a smirk.

“Are you teasing me?”

“Maybe…”

Reece just smiled and turned back towards the men’s barracks and resumed walking away. When Reece reached the bunks, he collapsed onto the nearest one to him and was asleep in moments. As he drifted off, he cleared his mind and focused on his aching muscles, and relaxed. No thoughts of zombie rats or pretty Japanese girls assaulted him, just the nearly instant warmth and darkness of sleep. That was one of his superpowers. He could sleep through just about anything. The skill usually served him well.

Tonight, it was a bit different. Another dream crept into his mind, much like the one from the previous night. He felt a warmth as he was surrounded by close companions. Outside of the warmth was a deep chill that he knew was there but couldn’t yet feel. He just knew it was coming and it filled him with a sense of trepidation. The dream faded out as quickly as it had started, but he managed to hold onto it once he woke up.

The following day started much like the previous one. Reece started with a workout in the empty gym before moving to the empty mess hall and eating breakfast alone. He put on his maintenance uniform and boots and met up with Angel, the first person he had seen so far. He wanted to finish up any remaining training that he needed to go over before Angel left on Hermes the following day.

Reece couldn’t lie to himself; he was feeling anxious about being the sole engineer on the station after tomorrow. As Angel was going over the waste processing system in great and gory detail, Reece’s mind started to wander as the novelty of space started to wear off a bit and the gritty reality of the amazing experience continued to sink in.

It was already getting difficult to think in terms of days and mealtimes. After all, the sun ‘rose’ an average of sixteen times per day. They were always beautiful, but it was impossible to plan a ‘day’ around them.

As Reece became used to the routine of the station and its crew, he felt the normalcy of the daily life he had always known start to melt away. Reece knew that wasn’t a bad thing. “If one wanted to become and remain successful in life, no matter the circumstances, one had best learn to adapt quickly to whatever was put on one’s path.” Mr. Jensen, Reece’s Political Science professor in his second year of college had written it on the board the first day of class and Reece had never forgotten it. It was one of many golden nuggets of truth that Reece had mined from his life. As he contemplated his new reality, Angel’s voice startled him from his reverie.

“Hey, how are you doing there, buddy?” Angel asked rather loudly with a little grin on his face. “You’re zoning out pretty good there. Thinking about someone in particular?”

Reece laughed off the gentle teasing. “Yeah, sorry. It just started to hit me how crazy all of this is. I think the shock or whatever is wearing off and everything is starting to get very real, you know what I mean?”

“Oh yeah, I feel ya. In fact, my emotions are all over the place too. On one hand, I can’t wait to get back home and see my friends, colleagues, and family. Yet, I’m not ready for this incredible opportunity to be over,” Angel said before leaning in closer to Reece. “On the plus side, the shit that is going on up here makes getting this experience over with that much more appealing, know what I mean?” Angel said under his breath.

Reece was trying hard to downplay the whole zombie-rat conspiracy business in his head since obsessing over it wasn’t going to do anyone any good, but Angel wasn’t making it easy.

Reece lamented as he thought about how much he was beginning to enjoy Angel’s friendship and camaraderie. Still, he figured it’ll be better for his mental health once the engineer was gone. It’ll be easier to keep his mind on station maintenance and making the most of the next several months without Angel’s conspiracy theories. He just wanted to forget the crazy ideas and make the most of this experience. Maybe Angel would just drop it for the rest of his time aboard the station.

“You know,” he said after carefully considering it. “I kinda wish you’d never showed me that thing.”

“Showed you what?” came a female voice from behind them.

Reece and Angel both turned to see Naeva coming up behind them. She had a wicked smile on her face and was wearing a tight black t-shirt and the same grey maintenance cargo pants and black steel-toed boots that they all wore.

Angel looked a bit confused as he tried to come up with something. He started to stammer something, but Reece didn’t feel that Angel had any confidence in his words. He decided he’d better jump in to save the man from saying something embarrassing or worse.

“The waste emulsifier under the panel there,” explained Reece. He pointed towards the panel that Angel had just shut to lend credence to his words. He hoped it would be a convincing explanation. Especially since the panel did cover a part of the waste processing system that they had just finished going over. Plus, considering the system in question, his reaction was plausible. “Trust me, you don’t want to know the details.”

“Fair enough,” replied Naeva as she put her hands in the air in mock surrender and a clear desire to not know any more details. “I came down here to gather you two for the going-away celebration. Singh and Rogers are on watch, so the rest of us can cut loose a bit. Apparently, Pasha smuggled some Russian vodka aboard and he’s willing to part with a bottle.”

Angel’s eyebrows rose and his mouth split into a big toothy grin. “I can do you one better. I had completely forgotten about it, but I snuck a whole case of tequila aboard. I think there are still three bottles left!”

Reece laughed, “Nice, I work with a bunch of booze smugglers.”

Naeva arched an eyebrow, “What is it you American’s say? Do not knock it. After all, alcohol always makes parties better.”

Naeva made that last comment with a penetrating stare and half-smile on her face that made Reece instantly nervous. She was a dark beauty, but also an enigma. Reece usually got a sense of a person fairly quickly, but she was different. In the couple of times that he spent time with her, he kept his guard up as he couldn’t get a read on her at all. However, with all the stress that the last couple of days had brought, he decided to let it go for now and blow off some steam.

Besides, she was clearly from a culture that was foreign to him, and English wasn’t her native language. Although all astronauts were required to speak English to facilitate communications, there were still plenty of misunderstandings because of figures of speech, accents, vernacular, cultural and societal differences, religious differences, and the like. Reece at least hoped her aura of mystery was simply due to one or more of those factors.

“Okay, okay.” he chuckled and turned to the man next to him. “We’ve been at this most of the day. Angel, is there anything else we should go over?”

“Nah,” replied Angel after giving it a moment’s thought. “That just about covers it. Let’s go get cleaned up and join the fiesta.”

“Alright,” replied Reece. To Naeva he said, “I guess we’ll see you there in a few minutes.”

“Don’t take too long,” sighed Naeva impatiently as she turned and walked away just a bit suggestively.

“Whoa, amigo,” exclaimed Angel in a whisper. “You’d better watch yourself with that one.”

“Why is that?” asked Reece seriously as he narrowed his eyes, suddenly suspicious of Naeva’s intentions.

Angel laughed nervously, a confused look on his face.

“Huh? Oh, buddy…you’re even more paranoid than me,” he replied as he seemed to realize Reece’s mistake. “I just mean that it’s pretty obvious that she’s trying to seduce you.”

“Oh,” exhaled Reece as he relaxed for a moment before it turned to irritation. “You see, that’s why I’d wished you’d never showed me that, uh…It’s just that, if I’m paranoid, then it’s your fault because of, oh whatever…”

Reece’s comment trailed off as he realized what’s done was done and at least he wasn’t imagining things with Naeva, so much for cultural differences. Angel just chuckled and shook his head.

“It is what it is, man. At least you aren’t completely in the dark. Oh, and take it from me. Be careful with Naeva, don’t go falling in love or she’s gonna break your heart. Now, let’s go get cleaned up. I want that drink…or three.”

“Wait, what?”

“I’m imparting on you some words of wisdom. Naeva and I have a bit of a past that I’d rather not get into. Don’t worry about it, it’s ancient news.”

“What? Do you mean ancient history or old news?”

“Yes,” replied Angel with an amused look on his face.

“Alright, alright, fine. I get it. Let’s go.”

Reece gave up the conversation in exasperation. The two men put their tools away and took turns washing up at the men’s sink. Luckily, with the artificial gravity loop, they could use actual liquid water like normal. This was different than the prior space stations where damp towels were used by the astronauts to clean themselves.