“Secret, sweetie. Let me have my fun.” She stared at the ring all day. It was beautiful, and she wondered if this was what newly-engaged brides felt like. That’s basically what it was—she was, for all intents and purposes, marrying these men, just not in name or legal designation.
When they returned to the hotel from the play, he went to the closet and pulled out a garment bag. Apparently one of the men had snuck it in when she wasn’t looking. He handed it to her.
“For the next part, please? Go take it into the bathroom and get ready. I’ll get dressed out here.”
Inside, she found a long, formal black evening dress, shoes, make-up¯everything she’d need to dress to the nines. When she emerged nearly a half-hour later, she gasped.
Aaron was dressed in a tux and looked devastatingly handsome.
“You like?” he asked.
She nodded, stunned. He was always a good-looking man, but now…with the total incongruity from his normal manner of dress, it was amazing.
He took her hand and nodded approvingly. “You are gorgeous, sweetie.”
“I’m guessing we’re not going hiking, horseback riding, or to the botanical gardens or museum?”
“Not quite.”
Their destination was the opera house, where they watched a performance of an Italian opera whose translated title meant, “Heart of Gold.” Fortunately, they had subtitles on a screen over the stage so she didn’t get totally lost.
Emi tried to subtly study Aaron’s face during the show. They held hands the whole time, his thumb gently stroking her knuckles.
When it was over, she stopped him outside. “You’re a mystery man.”
His amused smile twisted her heart around his. They might think she could lead them around, but the truth was they had the same effect on her.
“Did you have fun?” he asked.
“A lot of fun. I’ve never been to anything like this before.”
“Then let’s go get dinner.” Dinner was at an upscale Japanese steakhouse. They had a grill and cook to themselves, and she wondered if Aaron had arranged that in advance. When they returned, she wondered if he’d carry her over the threshold too. He did, but he surprised her, throwing her over his shoulder, laughing, playfully dumping her on the bed.
He landed next to her with a bounce. “So what now?” Emi laughed and rolled over on top of him. “Do you really need to ask?” She kissed him and felt him stiffen beneath her. “That was really sweet of you to let the twins go first.” He shrugged. “They’ve kept me alive all these years. It’s the least I can do.”
“They say the same thing about you.”
“I think it’s more I’ve kept them out of the brig and from facing a court martial.”
“They’re devoted to you.”
“I’m devoted to them.” His sadness broke through again. “They saved my life. They refused to give up on me and let me die. If it wasn’t for them…” He didn’t finish.
“Truck in the cafeteria, huh?”
Aaron laughed. “You’re distracting me.”
“It’s a fair question.”
He stood up and undressed, told her the story of how the twins were pissed at another crew for being jerks, so they stole the pick-up the other crew had requisitioned for a week and put it in the cafeteria of the Merchant Marine building when they were in dry dock a few years prior.
“How’d they get it in there?”
He hung up his jacket. “Beats the hell out of me. They never did say, and for some reason, the security cameras malfunctioned that night.”
She shimmied out of her clothes, and he hung her dress for her.
“Maybe I can get it out of them.”
“You have ways of making them talk?” His playful smirk warmed her.
“I’m sure I do.”
Their talk, however, ended as he made love to her for several hours before they fell into an exhausted sleep. The next morning, she studied him while he slept, his face and soul completely relaxed, perhaps more than she’d ever seen him.
No, not relaxed.
Content.
He felt different today than he had even yesterday. Maybe he was finally starting to heal?
She hoped so. She wanted to be the one to bring him peace.
“So tell me about your parents,” he said, startling her.
“I didn’t know you were awake.”
He opened his eyes and smiled. “You didn’t ask.” He watched her face. “You don’t have to if you don’t want to.” She cuddled in his arms, and, feeling secure, she told him.
“They loved what they did. They were good at it. I missed having a house with a huge yard and garden, but they promised in another two years, when their contract was up, they’d move back Earth-side and buy us another one.” Emi closed her eyes, conjuring their faces.
“They came back once a month to visit. I never went up there. I was afraid to.”
“And now you’re getting on a spaceship for five years?”
“Yeah. Tell me about it. The official story, as far as I could learn from the government report, is that they were outside the main compound, in a research pod. Do you know anything about how they have it set up there?”
“I’m only familiar with the commercial and residential settlements.”
“The research compounds have defense fields and sensor systems.
Fail-safes, you know? Even if something gets past the sensor, the defense field takes care of it, repels it.” She tried not to think of the pictures she’d foolishly demanded, filing Freedom of Information Act lawsuits to get all the answers.
“They’d taken the sensors off-line for maintenance. Not a big deal, right? Because of the defense field. But the problem was, no one bothered to tell the research pod that the sensors were off-line.” Her voice softened. “The engineer at the research pod needed to replace a power generator and had to take the defense field off-line to divert the energy to life support. Normally not a problem, but they had no warning.”
Emi fought the tears. “A small meteorite slammed into the research pod. Normally not a huge problem, because the skins they use on the pod buildings are double-hulled, another safety feature.
Well, this one hit right at one of the hatches, and the inner airlock door was open because someone was getting ready to come out.
“It was one of those freak accidents on top of a freak accident.
Any part of the equation, if it was different, they would have been okay. If they’d been at the far side of the pod, behind one of the back-up air-tight bulkhead doors, they would have been okay. Or if the sensors or defense fields had been on.” He let her lay there silently for several long minutes. “Twenty-two people died, including my parents. They offered all the families cash settlements, as well as fully paid tuition to any university for minors and dependents. They issued me emancipated minor status, because I had no family. I was in boarding school, so I stayed there. I could have stayed in college for the rest of my life, and they would have paid for it.”
“I’m glad you didn’t.” He pulled her tighter against him.
“Me too.” She sighed. “Or I can always go back one day for another degree.”
He nuzzled her ear. “Maybe after we get back from this mission.” Her heart chilled until he clarified. “If you didn’t want to go with us every day, we could do moon runs, be home here every night. It would give you something to do during the day while we were gone.
Or you can go with us.”
“You mean it, right?”
“Of course we mean it. We aren’t letting you go. Get that through your thick head. In fact, if you were to cancel on us at the last minute, we’d probably resign and stalk you wherever you go and beg you to stay with us.”
“No need to do that. You’re stuck with me.”
“Good.”
They also took a long, romantic bath. “Do you mind if the twins join us for breakfast?” he asked.