“Do you think we’ll get a good display when the spaceship crashes?” Lindsay asked while the friends lay on the New Zealand beach outside their ocean front cabin rental. She flipped her long blonde hair to draw her boyfriend’s attention.

“No dummy.” Michael said “It’s going to happen during the day. There won’t be anything to see.”

“Well, that sucks.” she pouted.

“Is that what she said?” he said with a playful leer as he emphasised checking out her tanned, athletic body.

Lindsay gave Michael a look of mock horror and smacked him in the shoulder.

“Are you two going to need a room?” René asked, peeking over her oversized sunglasses.

“I might, but him? I don’t know.” Lindsay shot back.

“Are you saying I like to put on a show?” Michael looked offended. He pretended to be innocently oblivious to flexing his well toned physique.

“Well, after Thailand…”

“In my defence, I was pretty drunk…” Michael temporized.

“So what are the chances we’ll actually see anything?” Farrah asked, changing the subject away from feeding Michael’s ego.

“Pretty low actually. We’re on the edge of the potential impact area, but we might see some bits and pieces burning up. We won’t know until tomorrow if the news reports are right.” Michael answered with a shrug.

“That’s a bummer.” Lindsay sulked.

“Well, it’s not like we don’t have 1000 things to do around here.” Renée said, waving idly at the expanse of beach and trees.

“No doubt.” Lindsay said looking at Michael. “Let’s head back to town and see if we can rent some jet skis.”

“Sounds good.”

***

“Finally, some peace and quiet.” Farrah said shortly. “Love those two to death, but sometimes they just don’t let up.”

Renee and Daniel nodded. Vacationing together was always a balancing act of personalities and interests. Some days they thought it was a miracle that there hadn’t been more fights in the last two weeks. Maybe just being away from home and the pressures of work and school, combined with wide-open beaches and plenty of activities meant everyone had the space they needed.

“I’m going to go for a run down the beach.” Daniel said. “I’ll be back in an hour or so.”

Even though they were on vacation, Daniel made a point of keeping up his maintenance workouts. He didn’t want the off-season to set him back like they did someone with less discipline.

“Are you taking your bionics?” Farrah asked. She was intrigued by his new glucose monitor. The experimental contact lens was just starting human trials.

“Yeah, I have them in. No alarms so far today. But I’ll take my kit just in case.”

“Cool. I still want to know more about that thing, if you happen to leave the brochure lying around.”

“I wish, but nondisclosure and all that.”

Farrah sighed, resigned.

“How about you?” She said looking at René. “Run or relax?”

Renee stretched and shook her head. “I’m laying here in the sun doing nothing on purpose. If I feel like a burst of energy is coming on, I’m going to roll over and ignore it until it goes away.”

Farrah smiled, “I’ll be in the shade reading my book.” waving in the direction of a nearby tree.

***

“I wonder when Michael and Lindsay are going to get back?” René pondered that evening, as the friends finished cleaning up after dinner.

“Knowing those two, they could be shacked up in a hotel room on the far side of the island, or up to no good on some billionaire’s yacht.” Daniel shook his head.

“Yeah, I know. But I’d still rather know they’re safe somewhere.”

The other two nodded. However, after this many vacations together, they knew Michael and Lindsay could be counted on to disappear every few days and stagger back with wild stories that were only half believable.

“Oh well, leave the lights on downstairs and we’ll hear all about it in the morning.”

“No doubt.” Daniel said heading up the stairs to the sleeping loft. “I’m headed to bed. See you in the morning.”

“Night.” The other two chimed.

***

“What the hell is this?” Michael asked poking the container with his foot.

“Don’t touch it.” Lindsay said, her voice tinged with worry. “It’s probably from that Chinese spaceship.”

“Satellite.” He corrected, “Satellite, not spaceship.”

“Whatever, it’s a piece of a ship that fell from space. Space. Ship.” Lindsay shot back. “Whatever it is, don’t touch it and get back to paying attention to me.” She pulled at his arm.

“What are you afraid of? It’s just space junk. Here let’s get a selfie with it. We can show all our friends and be famous.” He pulled his phone out of his pocket.

“I’m not afraid, I’m bored. It’s just a piece of junk.”

“Junk, sure… But junk from space.” Michael grinned, “I wonder if I can open it?”

“Now you’re going looking for trouble.”

Michael shrugged and pulled out his multitool, replacing it in his pocket with his cellphone. Unfolding one of the blades, he started prying at the latches on the container.

“You aren’t going to be happy until you pop that thing and radiation sprays everywhere, are you?” Lindsay poutted, folding her arms over her chest.

“Radiation, yeah whatever.” he snorted without looking up from his struggle. “They wouldn’t let something like that land anywhere near, well land.”

“Yeah, because they did this on purpose.”

Michael had managed to pry open one of the latches and got to work on the second.

Lindsay dropped her arms, “You have fun with that. I’m going to sit over here in my bikini, soaking up the sun.”

“Yes!” Michael exclaimed. “Got it!” Lindsay looked up, hopeful that his interest would be satisfied and he would return his attention to her.

He pried open the lid with an expectant look on his face. Lindsey watched as his hopeful optimism turned to disappointment. He shook the case, and reached inside. She could hear the sound of broken glass rattling inside.

“Awe, your new toy broken already?”

“It’s a bunch of busted glass and some grey dust. You’d think they’d keep their spaceship cleaner.”

“See! Spaceship. You agree.” She said with a self-satisfied look.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. I wonder if the case is worth anything?” He said looking as if a secret compartment would pop open and reward them with treasure. “Ow, dammit.”

“Aw diddums, did you hurt yourself?” She asked sarcastically, “I bet it’s worth…a trip to a Chinese prison? …or least a stay in the local cop shop while they decide whether or not you’re worth the hassle?”

“Yeah, it probably wouldn’t be easy to get out of the country anyways. Dammit, that hurts.” He said, sticking his cut finger in his mouth.

“So it’s settled, you can get back to paying attention to me.” she winked at him.

“Baby you always know I want to pay attention to you.”

Michael scratched idly at his hand, where he had cut it inside the container.

***