I was sipping my green tea while enjoying the cool evening air out on the porch when my holostick started buzzing, the buzzing unpleasantly interrupting my city pop playlist I’d put up on the background.

“Hello?” I answered it, it wasn’t immediately clear who it was, but the military encryption meant that it definitely was someone who had my contact info.

“Hello Doctor Winter.” A familiar voice spoke out.

I immediately sat straight in my comfortable chair. “Ellie? Is that you? Is something wrong with the ship?”

“No, doctor, I just wanted to say hi…”

“You just wanted to say hi…?”

“Yes.” She replied. “If I am bothering you, I can leave again.”

“No, no, not at all.” I denied her insinuation. “I was just a bit surprised, that’s all.” I held my holostick in front of me and suddenly saw a figure looking back at me. “Wow. That surprises me too.”

“Are you talking about my image, doctor?” She asked.

“Mhmm.” I nodded. “That’s quite an interesting look you picked for yourself.”

The image rubbed the back of its head. “Thank you, the Commander and the XO thought to too.”

“Oh, you’ve spoken to them too?”

“Yes.” She replied. “They gave me a tour of the Commander’s house.”

“Did they now?” I chuckled. “I take it they didn’t really mind your image either?”

“They asked some questions first, but they seemed to be fine with it.”

“Well, I would have some questions too, that’s for sure, but I’m not surprised Lauren and Luna would be very open about those kinds of things.”

“Aren’t you going to ask those questions, doctor? You are free to do so.”

I leant back into my cozy porch chair. “Nah, I’m on leave, I can always ask questions later. Plus, if Lauren has already given her okay, that means you are not a threat to the ship, I’m not going to second guess her on that.” Taking my tea back in hand. “It’s a good thing to keep work and private life separate. That’s my view on it, anyway. Instead of a coworker, you are more like a visiting friend at the moment.” I put the holostick on the little table beside me so Ellie could look around a bit better.

“Is this your house?” Ellie asked, her little image gazing around.

I shook my head and smiled. “No, it’s my parent’s place in the black forest. They aren’t here, so I came over to wind down a bit from the hectic nature of the last week. The city isn’t well-suited for that.”

“It does look very calming.”

“Yes, and the best thing is, the nearest neighbor is at least 200 meters away.” I put the cup of tea to my lips and drank from it. “Why don’t you get something to drink for yourself too, Ellie?”

“Doctor, I can’t leave your holostick.”

“I know, but if you can make your own image, you can also make your image hold a drink, right?”

“....” Ellie didn’t say anything, instead her avatar just appeared with a cup in her hand a second or so later.

“Good girl.” I smiled. “So, tell me, how are Lauren and Luna doing down south?”

I listened attentively as Ellie told me more in detail what she’d seen on the South Pole.

“Sounds like they are living the cozy life down there, good on them. Makes me want to give them a little toast.” I looked into the dark forest ahead of me and then nodded. “You know, why not, let me get something alcoholic from the alcohol cabinet, I’ll be right back.”

I patted my holostick on the top and then ran indoors to the alcohol cabinet that was in the middle of the living room. I wasn’t about to open up a bottle of champagne by myself, so I just took out the bottle of whiskey together with a glass and ran back out.

“There you go.” I said with a smile and sat back down in my seat, filling a little glass for myself. Ellie in the holostick held out a digital empty glass too, which made me chuckle, I pretended to fill it up for her as well.

I then raised my glass. “To the happiness of our adorable couple and our great friends, Lauren and Luna.”

“May they live long and prosper.” Ellie replied, making me snort.

“Ellie, you know that’s a movie quote, right?”

Her avatar shrugged, also still holding her glass up high. “I found that search result rather fitting.”

“Well, it does.” I admitted and then raised my glass a bit higher again. “Prost!”

“Cheers!” Ellie added and we both downed our small glasses. The rather strong whisky did make me cough a bit. Dad does keep some rather spicy things in that cabinet.

We sat in silence for about a minute or two after the toast before Ellie spoke up again. “Doctor Winter?”

“Just call me Eva already.” I smiled.

She nodded. “Eva, is this what you generally do in your free time?”

“You should know what I do in my free time, right? You’ve seen me do it plenty of times aboard the ship. Listening to music and jogging mostly. Not that I jog anywhere close to Lauren’s level, but still. I do some yoga on the side too, and apart from that I also like brainstorming about more ways to tease Lauren with.”

“Very Lauren centric.”

“She is my best friend, after all.” I smiled. “That might sound a bit sad from an outside perspective, your best friend being your boss and all that, but we’ve just known each other for a long time.”

“I don’t see any problems with that. I too consider you to be my friends, and I don’t even own a real body.”

“Aww, Ellie.” I aww’ed. “The feeling is definitely mutual.”

Ellie’s avatar touched her cheek in a very cutesy way, I could easily imagine her blushing. “Thank you, that means a lot.”

I smiled and finished the rest of my green tea. “Say, Ellie, would you like to take a walk around the property? It’s your first time in a forest on Earth, isn’t it?”

“I would like that.” She nodded.

“Great.” I sat my mug down, took the holostick in my hand and got up. “Let’s go and see if my dad still has that swing set set up in the back.”

-Maybe I could secure my holostick to it and give Ellie yet another first time experience.-