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starsficThis story is the twelfth story in Last Bell, and it's mostly about Mike Corbett and Ali Carter in the newly established Terra Venture colony on Mirinoi. The planet was de-stonified by Kerone and an improvised team of new Defenders (Mirinoi's oldest Rangers): Mike, Maya, and Ali, plus a couple of ghosts who were still hanging around for whatever reason.
Terra Venture is currently racing through space with an unlivable city dome and no engine power to speak of, so it's been mostly evacuated except for a skeleton crew still hoping to save it and bring it home to the New World (now Mirinoi). Getting the dolphins out of the ocean dome was something of a challenge with just the Megaship, so Aquitar sent a special water ship to ferry them all to Mirinoi.
Carlos ended up being the one to bring the special ship. He also brought his daughter and her favorite babysitter (apparently Sylvie's summer job is to babysit Coral) and has so far managed to complain less about this than anyone else, despite the fact that Ashley, Andros, Zhane, and Kerone actually volunteered to go help Terra Venture, and they have a full-time nanny to watch their kids. (Thanks Aoife!)
Finally, Tessa's bachelorette party is tomorrow night, which isn't mentioned, but that's why they have to get back to Earth. Yay not having the party the night before the wedding!
Splashdown
by Starhawk
"Ali." Rebecca's voice was a little surprising, since Ali had thought she'd left for the night. "What are you doing?"
"Bioanalysis," she said without looking up. She and microscopes didn't get along very well, but self-contained optics used a lot less power than virtual projectors. Power was being carefully monitored at the landing site right now. "Maria made a list; it's out by the--"
For a moment, Ali couldn't think of the word. She waved in the direction of the tent door absently. "Out front. Next door. Field tent."
"Why?" Rebecca asked, and that made Ali turn and frown at her.
Rebecca wasn't wearing her jacket. Her hair had been pulled back, and she looked considerably neater than the last time Ali had seen her. More casual, maybe, but definitely neater. Ali squinted, trying to put her finger on the difference.
"I mean," Rebecca continued patiently, "why are you doing it? Why are you doing it now? And when are you planning to sleep? I hope you've at least eaten since last night."
"Last night?" Ali repeated. She glanced toward the door, but the light of the encampment didn't tell her anything. "What time is it?"
The light from the door was suddenly obscured by a large and very familiar frame. Mike's eyes scanned the large medical tent, going from table to table until he found her. Rebecca was saying something, but she glanced over her shoulder when she saw Ali staring, then moved hastily out of the way as Mike strode toward them.
"Dr. Ali," he greeted her. He nodded to Rebecca briefly before adding, "You busy?"
"Uh, yeah," she said, rolling her eyes. "Why else would I be sitting here? This isn't what I do for fun."
"Good," he said. "Come on. Official business."
"No, wait." Rebecca protested before she could. "Can't your official business wait until after she's gotten some rest? She's been at it all night."
Mike gave her a longer look this time, a smile gracing his expression. "Well, since my official business is to make sure she gets some rest, preferably after she's eaten, no."
"Hello," Ali said, waving at them. "Sitting right here."
"Will you join me for breakfast?" he asked, very courteously. Like he hadn't just been talking about making her rest, lying to her coworkers, and generally getting in the way of anything she might try to do.
"Only because you asked so nicely," she said, rolling her eyes at him. "Let me put this stuff away first." She was, admittedly, more hungry than she'd bothered to do anything about in hours.
"If Maria's list is going to tell me to do exactly what you're doing," Rebecca said, "you might as well leave it out and save me some time."
Ali didn't have to be told twice. She was still surprised to step out of the tent and see bright blue sky overhead, though. She really had missed the transition from camp lighting to full daylight--and she knew her confusion didn't go unnoticed.
"Welcome to tomorrow," Mike murmured, giving her a smile when she glanced sideways at him. "First thing Leo learned about being a Ranger: just because you can do it doesn't mean you should."
She scoffed. "I don't think Leo ever learned that lesson."
He laughed aloud, and she smiled to herself. Point taken, nonetheless. She'd had it demonstrated countless times; the Power would keep you on your feet until there was nothing left, and you wouldn't even know it was happening until you keeled over from... well. That was the question, wasn't it. How far would it let you go?
TJ had had his suspicions after the Phantom Ranger incident. Sure, they all said the Power had kept Saryn alive when he wanted to die. But TJ wasn't the only one who thought Phantom had been killing himself slowly long before he met Cassie, and no one was sure if he had bent the Power to his will or if it had taken advantage of his condition to create--and steadily burn out--the perfect fighter.
Weren't the Psycho Rangers just another example of the dangers of unchecked Power?
"You have to eat more in between," Mike was saying, and she'd missed the beginning of it but she recognized the lecture. "It doesn't seem to work that way with sleep, which is... odd. I mean, you crash, but not as badly as you'd expect."
"Eat more, sleep less," Ali agreed absently. "Basic Ranger code."
"You know this." He sounded like he'd just realized. "Were you just going to let me babble at you until...?"
"I was thinking about something else," she admitted.
She could hear the smile in his voice when he said, "I don't know whether that makes me feel better or not."
"It was relevant?" Ali offered, teasing him with an almost-apology. "I was wondering how much the Power encourages us to act against our own self-interest. You know, for a greater good. Compared to how much it protects us."
Mike didn't bat an eye. "There's a difference between enabling and encouraging. I don't think the Power has intent, do you?"
"I don't know," she said slowly. "We talk about it like it does. 'May the Power protect you.' That's not just a--a symbol, a talisman, that's something we actually expect. We expect it to actively intervene on our behalf."
"Really?" Mike moved around a couple of people guiding cargo on antigrav lifts, pacing her easily even with the extra steps. "It sounds like an invocation to me. Like, of spirits or divinity or something. You don't really expect them to do anything, you just mention them out of respect, or... acknowledgment that anything can happen. That it's out of your hands."
"Um, I think some people do expect something to happen when they pray." She shot him an amused look as he bumped her shoulder, apparently by accident as they rounded yet another tent. "That's why they do it."
"Mike." Natan came that close to doing the same, except that he reached out to touch her on purpose, as an apology for being in their way. "Did Kendrix find you? She was looking for you when she left the SMART camp."
"No." Mike looked around like she might appear at any moment. "Serious?"
Natan shrugged. "Apparently not. Make sure you stop by one of the mess tents, though; they're planning a touchdown feast for tonight and they want to get a headcount of allergies and meat-eaters and what have you."
"Dietary's supposed to have things like that on record," Mike said, frowning.
"New world, new plan," Natan said with a grin. "They're trying to be more community-oriented. Less dependent on computers."
"Not everyone has power to spare," Ali added. "It's easier to use handhelds than get remote database access from here."
"For departments," Natan agreed, edging around them. "Most of the colonists aren't allowed to charge personal devices until we get some kind of sustainable power distribution going. It's worth remembering how to write things down."
"We'll have hydroelectric up and running by the end of the week," Mike told him. "If you see Kendrix again, tell her I'm in the officers' mess."
"Um, why?" Ali wanted to know. "I don't know any of the officers. Is the food better there?"
"Okay, I'm going to be wherever Ali wants to eat," Mike said, holding up his empty wrist and twisting it once to make a morpher appear. "She can call me."
Natan gave him a jaunty salute, two fingers and as non-military as it came, even as he backed away. Tossing a smile in Ali's direction, he offered, "I recommend the biscuits," before he turned and strode off into the maze of temporary tents.
"She can always call you," Ali said. "It must be something she didn't want to say over the comm."
"Is there a doctors' mess?" Mike asked, giving her a quizzical look. "Somewhere all your friends hang out?"
"There's a kids' mess," she said, because having the doctor argument again wasn't going to change anything. "They get all the comfort food. And they'll be glad to have a couple of extra chaperones for a while."
"So I won't get to have an actual conversation with you," he remarked, and it was hard to tell how much he was disappointed and how much he was just complaining to be funny.
"Which would be so different from the officers' mess," she said dryly. "At least endless interruptions are cuter when they come from kids."
Mike inclined his head in gracious defeat. "Point," he admitted, a smile playing about his lips.
The nearest kids' mess was about fifty-fifty, actually, as families countered the effects of jet lag by sleeping in. There wasn't any call for chaperoning, just noise tolerance as the kids yelled and ran and occasionally sat down long enough to eat something. There weren't any chairs, but the morning was beautiful and the mess had been set up buffet style. She and Mike followed the crowd outside, carrying colony food out into the light of their new home.
"Feeling okay?" he asked, out of the blue. He'd pointed out a place under the trees, no doubt recently vacated, and they sat close enough to watch the activity but sheltered enough that they might not have to be part of it.
"I... yeah," she said. The question caught her off guard, and she thought about it for a minute. "Actually, I don't know. I think so. Why?"
He smiled. "Maybe because I don't know either?" he offered. "I figured maybe I could follow your lead."
It made her laugh, and she saw him draw in a breath and let it out deliberately. "Yeah," he said, more quietly. "That works."
Ali sobered, studying him. "Is it weird, being here again?" she asked after a moment.
"It's weird being here at all," he said. "I mean, it's not the new world, but it might as well be. And we didn't expect to get here for... well, a lot longer. I don't know if anyone was really--ready to start building yet."
"I hadn't gotten to the settling down part," she admitted. "I guess that's what you mean, right? I think I'm still in 'flying off into space' mode. Great adventure, totally temporary... I hadn't quite gotten used to life on Terra Venture, to tell you the truth."
"Yeah." Mike was playing with his food; there was no other word for it. "I can't let go of the idea that we have to look out for Terra Venture. It's still out there. But there's so much we have to do here, and--"
"And where do you start," she said, when he just stopped and stared down at the ground for a long moment.
"Yeah," he said, but he shook his head. "Actually... I kind of feel like I've already done it. That's Estavan, I guess. Everything here is a little... familiar."
"Does that suck?" she asked. "Because no one you remember is here? Or does it help because the planet isn't as strange as it could be?"
He looked up, a pensive expression on his face. "I don't know," he said, looking at her. Looking through her, almost. She had no idea what he was seeing right now. "I guess that's why I asked you."
Ali smiled, hoping it looked more reassuring than confused. "Well, at least you know you're in good company."
His expression lightened in response. "True," he said, lifting his glass in a mock toast. She grabbed hers and met him halfway, and he added, "To good company."
"To good company," she echoed, taking a drink of her juice. "Also, thanks for pulling me out of the Medlab camp. I definitely lost track of time there."
He swallowed and set his glass down on the ground beside him. "Hey, pulling you out of Medlab is a skill I've honed. I have to stay in practice."
"Small problem with the plan, though." She honestly couldn't tell from looking how many of the people who walked by had slept since arriving on Mirinoi. Everyone was wearing the clothes they'd arrived in. "The resting thing."
"Okay, I'm tired," he told her. "So I'm not going to believe you if you tell me you don't need to sleep."
She raised her eyebrows at him. "Did you just imply that I should get tired more easily than you?"
"No," he said, giving her the same look right back. "I implied that we should be experiencing exactly the same degree of tiredness. Given that we both work the day shift, stayed up all night, and now have identical magic swords that make us less likely to make reasonable decisions about when to eat and sleep."
"So we have to remind each other?" she suggested, softening.
"Something like that," he agreed, but the smile he gave her made her think that the "something" was more flattering rather than less.
Thinking about it more fairly, she realized, "Hey, does this mean I should practice pulling you out of Command? I mean, if we're going to keep things even..."
A grin broke across his face. "That plan has my full support. Let me know what I can do to encourage it."
Which wasn't exactly the answer she'd been expecting, and she had almost no idea what to do with it. "Wow," she said aloud. "I do need a break. I think you just out-flirted me."
Calling him on it didn't stop him. "I always out-flirt you," he teased. "I'm glad you noticed."
"Were you waiting for me to notice?" she asked curiously. "Because Kai says that pointing it out only makes Leo worse."
That, on the other hand, made him stop and stare at her. "Kai says--what? Really? You and Kai talk about me and Leo?"
She had to laugh at his expression. "No! When do I see Kai? He doesn't even like me!"
"You just made that up," Mike realized.
"And you proved it was true," she teased.
"Thereby preventing me from flirting with you," he continued, giving her a speculative look. "Am I coming on too strong? Because I can back off."
Ali blinked. "Are you--I mean--" As confident and as straightforward as he seemed, she hadn't expected him to say that. Maybe... not because he'd said it, but because she hadn't been sure he was really doing it.
"You're flirting with me on purpose," she blurted out. "Really?"
"I hope I'm not doing it badly enough that it looks like an accident," he said with a smile. "If it's too much, I can tone it down."
"So, not like Leo," she said dryly, trying to think. Or cover. Or something. Mike was flirting with her on purpose. She had no idea what to say to that.
"There are a few differences," Mike agreed. And that was all he said.
"Um... I don't want you to back off?" she offered awkwardly. "I just--don't know what to say."
"I know I'm not--it's--" He didn't look away, but she thought maybe her clumsiness was catching. "It's still strange to touch people, but I'm getting used to it. I used to be more... it' s not that I can't," he said quickly. "I don't even know if you want me to."
"Wait, what?" She felt the sudden urge to laugh. "What are we--are you apologizing for moving too fast, or not fast enough?"
The corner of his mouth quirked, which she found suddenly and unashamedly adorable. "Which would you prefer?"
Ali did laugh then, because she could. "You know, if we've been dating all this time, you could have told me. Rebecca always asks, and I always say no, you just hang out with me because I'm the one who patched you up after Mirinoi. The first time on Mirinoi," she amended.
"I hang out with you because I like you," he said. "I'd have asked you out, but I was afraid you'd say no. Seemed easier to just keep showing up and hope for the best."
"I like that you show up," she admitted. "I just--" And even now, she didn't know whether to say it or not, but she always had before and... well, he kept showing up. "I mean, you were married, so I didn't know."
"I was married to two beautiful women," he said quietly. "I love them. I miss them. But that was a long time ago. I don't want the fact that I loved them to keep me from ever loving again."
She nodded. He talked about them, sometimes, and she was glad to hear stories of Estavan's home. But she had never been sure from the way he talked whether he was ready to move on or not. She hadn't known Mike before Estavan's loss, so she had no way to judge the progress of his mourning.
"I wouldn't want that, either," she said.
Mike lifted his glass in her direction again. "One of many reasons," he said, in a more normal tone of voice, "that I steal you from Medlab any chance I get."
"Or make up," she added, picking up her glass and tapping it against his before he could take a drink. "You're very creative."
He took this as a compliment, as she'd assumed he would. "Thank you," Mike agreed. "You're very inspirational."
Her imaginary Kai was right, she thought. Calling attention to the flirting only made them more audacious. Luckily, she was fine with that.
She still didn't have a place to sleep, though, an inevitable issue when he asked her where she was staying. "Hadn't really gotten that far," she admitted. "It didn't seem that important when we first landed, and now that it's already tomorrow it seems weird to ask."
"Well," he said. "Officers' Square isn't full."
"A square?" she repeated, hoping her tone conveyed even half her amusement. "You have a square now?"
"Triangle sounded like something you get lost in," he offered. "'Circle' didn't sound strong enough, and anything from five sides on up has too many syllables."
She had to concede at least the latter half of his point. But she couldn't resist saying, "Maybe it would be more full if people didn't have to say 'I'm in Officers' Square' every time someone asked them where they were."
"You can call it a rose garden, for all I care." But the laughter in his eyes said he did care, and he would pay close attention to whatever she picked. "The point is, I have an extra cot in my tent that no one is using.
"I'm not trying to make you move in or put you in a weird spot or anything," he added quickly. "I just figure it'd be easy--for today at least--to have a place you didn't have to set up yourself."
It did sound delightfully easy to Ali's tired brain.
"Besides," Mike was saying. "I got you a present."
"What?" She tried to say it in a way that disguised her yawn, but it just didn't happen. "A present for what?"
"For everything," he said, but he looked sort of neutral about it. Now he was the one trying to hide his expression--and he was doing a much better job than she had been. "But I don't think you're going to like it."
"Well, thank you, Mr. Cryptic," she said, amused. "Does this have anything to do with sleeping?"
"Depends where you end up sleeping."
There was no getting anything out of him when he got like this, so she didn't try. "Officer Camp it is," Ali said, watching a little boy in clothes that were definitely not colony issue scamper into the mess tent. "Did the Mirinoans arrive overnight?"
"Yeah." Mike followed her gaze. "Families usually travel together."
"Did you?" she blurted out without thinking.
He just nodded.
The little boy zipped out of the tent again a moment later, several adults in tow--none of them native to Mirinoi, as far as Ali could tell. They all moved off together, and for once, she was glad she didn't have to know. The colony could get by without her for a few hours... though she did wonder briefly about Mike.
Commander Stanton had stayed with Terra Venture throughout the evacuation, and as far as she knew that hadn't changed. Leaving Mike the ranking officer at the landing site--in name at least, if not in practice. She figured it was better not to ask either way: if he was in charge, he needed the break more than she did, and if he wasn't, it was likely to be a sore spot that she'd do better to avoid.
"So, out of curiosity," she began, and really, why did she open her mouth? She clearly had no internal censor anymore. "If you're here, who's running the colony?"
"Councilor Renier and her swarm of civilian minions," Mike replied. "I overheard her telling one of them that she'd taken a nap and was 'perfectly ready for the day.' I figure, if the Council's that confident in the day? They're welcome to it."
So, a sore spot, but not for the reasons she'd thought. "So they're making the decisions," she said, just to make sure.
He shrugged. "The GSA's job was to get us here. The New World constitution took effect the moment the first colonist set foot on the planet. It's the Council's game now."
"Well," she said after a moment too long. "I guess that's fair."
"Hey, it means I get to sleep." His tone was significantly less irritable all of a sudden, and he flashed a smile in her direction. "I'm not complaining."
She couldn't resist adding, "Anymore," and he laughed.
"It was always supposed to be this way," he admitted, bracing his arms behind him and leaning back a little. "I'm fine with it."
"Me too," she said impulsively. "I assume this means I won't see you less, anyway."
"Not unless you want to," he agreed. "I'm a little worried about what this Defender thing is going to mean for you and Maya, but I'm pretty sure you're more ready for it than I was. So. Let me know if I can help."
"And look," she said, amused. "Suddenly you're counseling people. I told you your situation wasn't as unique as you thought it was."
This led to an argument over what she had told him and when, what he had known and why, and exactly what they were doing sitting outside the kids' mess tent when they were no longer eating. Especially considering the exhaustion that was starting to set in. Or at least make itself known--she was pretty sure it could have set in hours ago and she would have been too distracted to notice.
By the time they made it to the officers' tents, she had almost forgotten about her present. When Mike made her stop outside, she saw his uncomfortable expression and knew. The present, whatever it was, was definitely going to delay the moment when she was allowed to sleep.
"Before you go in," Mike was saying, "I didn't ask them to do this, okay?"
Ali gave him her best "stop being cryptic" look, which had never worked before but she was too tired not to try. "Uh-huh," she agreed.
"Okay," he said, "I might have asked one of your old teammates if they'd mind rescuing your bamboo plant. I know the buildings were meant to seal when the dome cracked, but it's not like we ever tested that outside of simulation. And if they were taking pets..."
"You're telling me my bamboo plant is inside your tent," Ali said, amused. That was sweet. Probably a huge breach of protocol somewhere, but that didn't make it less charming and she could keep her mouth shut.
"Not exactly." Mike glanced down. Probably in the direction of invisible morphers; she knew that look. "I'm saying that Ashley was the one who picked up your plant, and... she might have gotten a little carried away. They really like you."
"Well, you know how it is," she said. "You save their lives one time, and they think they owe you forever."
He smiled, pulling back the tent "door" and waving her through. The light that came through the bright yellow canvas made it look like morning, even inside. She didn't notice anything amiss at first--which was probably a testament to her tiredness, since his tent had three or four times as much stuff in it as anyone should rightfully have after an emergency evacuation.
The stuff looked an awful lot like...
"That's mine," Ali realized, staring at a very familiar duffel bag. A scrap of yarn on one of the straps distinguished it from the thousands of other standard-issue bags, and she knew the GSA tag on the far side would have her name on it. "Mike..."
"I know, I know." He held up his hands as though disclaiming responsibility. "I told them. I told her. But it's not like she was going to take it back. Everyone's going to get their stuff eventually; you just sort of... moved to the head of the line?"
"You save their lives one time," she repeated, more to herself than to him.
She couldn't look at it, somehow. She did manage to make a fuss over the bamboo plant, because she had been sad to think of it all alone back on Terra Venture... no one to water it, or talk to it, the possibility that the seals wouldn't work and all its air would escape before anyone could come back for it...
Ali didn't actually remember much of what happened before she woke up to the sound of Ashley's voice. She'd thought she might not be able to fall asleep, she knew that much. She must have thought it for a whole two seconds before she closed her eyes and forgot everything else.
As she lay there, on an uncomfortable cot beneath a yellow ceiling, things came back to her in no order at all. Standing on Mirinoi watching the Megaship touch down, watching evacuees file off. Being pressed into service to erect shelters in the medical camp. Mike sneaking her iPod into her hands when the sun made her bury her head under her pillow: and that explained the music, the background music she'd barely noticed, and the way her ear hurt a little as the earbud pressed into it.
She tried to roll over, found she didn't have enough room. She pulled the earbuds out and shifted under her--still standard issue blanket, but she saw the quilt her mom had made for her sticking out of one of the duffels at the end of her cot. She wondered if she would ever see Terra Venture again. She wondered why she was the one the Astro Rangers were looking out for.
Then she wondered why she wondered, because obviously. There was nothing she could do about the first, and there was no real reason to question the second. She was TJ's sister. They weren't going to pretend they didn't know her.
"Dolphins?" she blurted out, suddenly realizing what the conversation outside the tent was about. She shouldn't have said it aloud, especially when she wasn't even up yet. Sure enough, Mike appeared in the doorway a moment later, just as she was trying to push her braids out of her face and shake the sleep from her eyes.
"Hey, Dr. Ali," he said.
"Why do you call her Dr. Ali?" Ashley asked, ducking in under his arm before he could open the tent further. "Good morning, Ali!"
"It's not, is it?" She squinted at the light through the door, then up at the dome of the tent like that might help. "What time is it?"
"Three-ish," Ashley said, even as Mike shrugged. "At least, if you convert Mirinoan time to something like Earth time. Which everyone says you can't, but that's what they told me on KO-35, too. I say if it's mid-afternoon, it's about three o'clock. Problem solved."
It made Ali smile, and she wondered where Ashley was getting her energy from. Actually, she wondered when Ashley had gotten here at all. "Okay," she agreed. "Three is good. What did I miss?"
"Lunch," Mike put in. "But hey, you and everyone else, so there's food whenever you want it."
"Carlos," Ashley added. "He showed up in a fancy ship of his own and evacuated half the dolphin population of Terra Venture to Mirinoi. They're in the harbor now."
"More than half," Mike said. "Also, the Mirinoans have arrived in force. Medlab is staging a controlled freakout over the intermingling of germs."
"No kidding," Ali agreed, throwing everything back on her cot and tugging her shirt straight before she looked around for her shoes. "I should go. They're going to be testing everything in sight."
"Uh-uh," Mike said. "No. Trust me, you're the last person they want to see right now. They're not too thrilled with the Rangers setting a bad example of how to introduce previously isolated populations to each other."
"The Power protects us," Ashley reminded her ruefully. "We can't even carry things. Everyone else is potentially giving the Mirinoans chicken pox, or whatever, and who knows what they're giving you."
"Medlab's got it under control," Mike said firmly. "Or," he added, when she didn't look convinced, "if they don't, there's not a lot you're going to be able to do, since your physiology no longer represents either population. Congratulations. You just got yourself the afternoon off."
She stared at him, frozen where she was. "To do what?" she demanded. "Vision quest? Sword training?"
"Dolphin accommodation," he replied. "I need someone from biosciences, and they won't spare me anyone else. Kendrix has all her people on a strict rotation that involves color-coded alert levels. They're working in shifts--which, believe me, is a first for the scientists--and which shift you're on at any given time determines what level of alert you can be paged for."
Ali tried to sort that out in her head, but even Ashley looked bemused, so she said, "That sounds... complicated?"
"Well, they're the SMART ones." Mike smiled, pleased with himself, and she felt the corners of her mouth tug upward in response. "So, you want to help me?"
"Dophins, you said?" Like she ever didn't want something to do with the dolphins. "Does this involve field research?"
"It involves visiting the harbor, if that's what you mean," he said with a grin. "Ashley was just about to talk me into it. Apparently the Council has been slow to respond to aquaculture requests since splashdown. We're going to see if we can speed the process up some."
"Count me in," she agreed.
"We can wait if you want to change," Ashley offered. Just as Ali was about to ask if there was something wrong with her uniform, she added, "There could be time in the water involved, if you feel like getting wet."
Ali closed her mouth. She couldn't actually imagine Ashley in the water, but she wasn't going to put anything past her. "Okay," she agreed. "Since you guys seem to have rescued most of my clothes...?"
She didn't know exactly how to say "thank you" for that, especially since it still made her feel weird. Luckily, Ashley didn't seem to expect her too. In fact, Ashley surprised her again by wrinkling her nose and looking apologetic.
"Sorry about that," she said, and Ali blinked. "I couldn't not do it. I saw your jacket when I went to pick up your plant, and then your duffels were all right there... I know it's weird being the only one, but there are volunteers with air and exo-suits and digital inventories in the city right now. Other people are going to get their stuff too."
"We haven't written the city off," Mike added. "Kai is our voice of pessimism on that front, but Andros and Damon still think we might be able to slow it down before it gets here."
Something about this made Ashley laugh, and she said, "Andros is our voice of pessimism. If even he thinks it can be done? It'll get done."
"Wear your jacket," Mike suggested, apparently ignoring this. "It'll remind everyone you're special now and no one will complain."
"Okay, okay!" Ali rolled her eyes at them and shooed them both back. "Thank you. It was very nice of you; I'll change. Goodbye."
Ashley beamed at her, Mike winked for no apparent reason, and the two of them disappeared. Ali hadn't had any idea what jacket they were talking about--she'd assumed her Medlab jacket, not that that made any sense--until she went to rescue some shorts and a t-shirt from a duffel bag and found her Mega V jacket on top.
V6, the jacket said, with a picture of the earth limned in silver. Jean jackets, one for each member of Tessa's team, as improvised by DECA after the battle at Rysia. She wasn't sure wearing it would make her any less conspicuous, but her choices were that, her Medlab jacket, or going without. It was a jungle out there, quite literally, and while the temperature might be kind to bare arms, she knew the undergrowth wouldn't be and she had no certainties about the sun here.
She tried her Medlab jacket. She couldn't see what it looked like, but it felt silly over her regular clothes, so she ended up wearing the jean jacket anyway. Mike smiled when he saw it, and Ashley didn't seem to notice. Ali tried not to look for anyone else's reaction as they made their way out of the officer camp.
***
Ashley could see the sparkle off the water through the trees before she could hear the shouting that bounced across it, and maybe that was a good sign? She'd left Kerone with the kids, and Carlos and Silvy too. They'd given Aoife the day off after her exclusive and nonstop supervision of the kids during the evacuation effort, not to mention the attack before it, but Kerone had assured her she could manage both children alone if Carlos and Silvy also disappeared.
"Is that the beach?" Ali asked, ducking under and around giant broad-leafed undergrowth to pace her. Mike was walking ahead of them, following the GSA markers on the trees and occasionally holding branches for them.
"Yes," Mike said over his shoulder. "Apparently they're using the seaship as a dock to--"
He kept talking, but Ali was closer and she spoke right over him. "Okay, how long have you been up?" she demanded. "Coming to get me and ordering me to sleep is only cute if you're looking for an excuse to do it too, which I totally thought you were!"
"I was," he protested, turning around and ducking backwards under a branch that he held up and out of the way for them. "I just woke up before you, that's all."
Ali turned to Ashley in silent appeal.
"I didn't see him around camp until a few minutes ago," Ashley promised, looking from one of them to the other. "I have no idea what he was doing before that."
"Sleeping," Mike said. "Well, going through your things for your music when you woke me up, but the rest of the time I was sleeping."
Ashley could see the ship now, glinting purple-white just under the surface of the water. There were definitely people on it, too far away to make out who, and she thought she could see fins. That part was probably imagination, but she didn't care.
Mike and Ali were still bickering, so she didn't point out how pretty the beach was or how lovely the trees and tertiary dunes were all around them. Zhane loved the beach, but they didn't go as often as they had when she first arrived on KO-35 because Kae couldn't stand it for very long. She'd expected him to be playing along the path somewhere, but if they hadn't seen him yet maybe Kerone had let him wander off in another direction.
"Wow." Ali's startled response made it clear that she'd just noticed. The ship, at least, if not the increasingly wide view of beach before them. And the colonists coming toward them. "That's pretty impressive."
"Can you see the ship?" Mike asked, stepping out of the way of one of the markers to make room. Ali stepped back too, though, making way for the colonists, and everyone nodded to everyone else and Ashley wondered if they all knew each other yet or if they were still working on it.
"Kind of," Ali said, edging out around him again. "Unless the bottom of the ocean is really white here."
"That's the seaship," Ashley assured her. "It's ridiculously maneuverable. The dolphins don't want to come in too close to shore, obviously, but everyone needs to be able to communicate."
"And it's faster to walk out than it is to swim," Mike put in.
"Unless you're Carlos," Ashley finished. "Or Coral."
"That Sylvie's pretty fast, too," Mike said. "She have some dolphin in her?"
Maybe it was all the conversations with Carlos, but Ashley couldn't tell whether he was joking or not. "She spends a lot of time on Aquitar," she said instead. "Swimming is how they get around."
"Wouldn't have guessed," Mike said with a grin.
"Wow," Ali said again, as they came out from under the trees at last. "How big is that ship, anyway? And how can it be submerged in such shallow water?"
"Those are the fins," Ashley offered. "The part that comes right up to the beach. The rest of the ship is designed to be compartmentalized for safety reasons, so it actually isn't that big."
"Next to your battleships," Mike said under his breath. "Or your space colonies."
"Yeah, exactly." Now Ali was smiling too. "It looks plenty big to me."
That was when they were spotted. Kerone mentally alerted her that Hope was on her way before Ashley found either of them with her eyes, and everyone wanted Mike's attention all of a sudden. He put a hand on Ali's shoulder when she tried to wander away, so Ashley sent her a sympathetic look as she went in search of her daughter.
Ali didn't look too upset about it.
Sylvie intercepted her almost as soon as Hope did, and she was dripping but her clothes were dry and Ashley thought they were all going to have to visit Aquitar again. Soon. Hope's clothes were plastered to her skin and twisted around her body in such a way that meant they were going to dry several sizes larger than they'd started out. With Sylvie behind her, in a sparkly water-shedding Aquitian tunic and trousers, the contrast was inevitable.
"Kerone sent me to check on Kae," she offered, when Hope stopped babbling long enough to get a word in edgewise. "I'll be back in a few minutes?"
"Okay," Ashley agreed, petting Hope's hair and absently trying to straighten it a little while her daughter complained she was pulling. "Let us know if you need help." She had no idea where Kae was or what he was doing, but if Kerone wasn't teleporting there herself--this second--it probably wasn't as dangerous as most of the things he did.
"How come there aren't any dolphins at home, Mommy?" Hope was trying to shy away from the hair patting, still holding Ashley's hand as she tugged her toward the water's edge. "They say they go everywhere. But there aren't any at home."
"Well, there aren't many humans back home, either." Ashley let go of her hand long enough to pull off her shoes and roll up her pants before she followed Hope out into the water. "We live on the edge of a lot of things. It isn't an easy place to be, and there aren't many people that are brave enough to live there."
"I think it's easy," Hope declared. She hoped up onto the fin of the seaship, still splashing in the skim of water that covered it as it stretched away from shore.
"Yes, but you're very brave," Ashley told her with a smile. The seaship was smooth and warm under her feet, and she was willing to bet that whatever kind of dock the colonists put in wouldn't feel as nice as this.
"Why is it so hard?" Hope wanted to know. "Aren't dolphins brave? I think they're brave; they came all the way here and they didn't even have a ship of their own. And they're really nice. One of them gave me a ride out to a big rock!"
"That was very nice of them," Ashley agreed. She caught sight of Kerone, finally, standing on the far edge of the seaship's fin. Waving to them. She lifted her free hand to wave back. "Did your ma go in the water with you?"
"No." Hope dismissed this idea with a bounce and a turn of her head. "I went all by myself! Even Coral couldn't keep up, and she's from Alandia!"
Ashley almost said, "Where?" before she remembered something about dolphins not using the name "Aquitar" and decided it might be better to ask someone else later. "That must have been a very fast dolphin you were with," Ashley said.
"They're having a party later," Hope told her. "Can we go? They said we were invited!"
"The dolphins are having a party?" Ashley repeated, just to make sure they were still talking about the same thing.
"Yup!" Hope looked very pleased with herself. "Can we go? Sylvie's going, and she says it's going to be fun. And Coral gets to go, and she's little!"
"Maybe," Ashley said. "I'll have to see what your ma thinks about it first."
"She thinks it'll be fun too!" Hope exclaimed. "So now you don't have to talk to her!"
Ashley tried not to smile. "I think I do."
"Why?" Hope whined. "You already know it's fun!"
"Yes, but what if something more fun is happening somewhere else?" Ashley asked. "We have to compare notes."
"I don't think you have notes on fun things," Hope told her. "I think all your notes are on boring things." She pulled free and stalked away--at least as best a small child could stalk in water that came almost to her knees.
"Hey," Kerone said, splashing over to join her. "I see you found Ali."
Only then did she remember why she'd gone looking for Ali in the first place. "Totally forgot to ask her about the wedding," she said with a sigh.
"Well, it's not like you have anything else on your mind," Kerone said wryly. "Was Mike with her, or did you pick him up on the way?"
A reluctant smile tugged at her lips. "She was sleeping in his tent," Ashley said, glancing back toward the shore. Mike and Ali were invisible in the midst of the drifting colonists. "Separate cots, but all her stuff was still there. Very cute."
"Maybe she'll ask him to come to the wedding with her," Kerone said. "People can bring dates, right? Or is it just family members?"
"No, it's traditional to bring a date," Ashley said. "If I ever remember to invite her."
"Are you okay?" Kerone asked, studying her face.
She shook her head. "Yeah," she said, but Kerone clearly didn't believe her, so she tried again. "No, I mean, I managed to stay on Hope's good side for a whole two and a half minutes. So that's a good thing."
"Yes," Kerone said, sounding amused. "It is. That's better than I've managed to do all day; she's in a terrible mood. Don't let it get to you. She'll wear herself out in the water and we'll make her take a nap before dinner."
"You think?" Ashley glanced out over the water. "She says the dolphins told her there was a party tonight."
"Which is perfect," Kerone agreed. "No nap, no party. She'll need the sleep to stay up anyway. You know the kids don't do well with time changes."
Ashley made a face, more because she shouldn't have to be reminded than because she disagreed. "Kae's fine."
"He's also seven years older than she is," Kerone said. "And believe me, he's off sulking too. He's just doing it about something else."
Ashley sighed again, because she could with Kerone, and she got an arm around her shoulders and a sideways hug for her trouble. "Think I should go try and find Ali?" she asked at last.
"I guess it depends when you want to leave," Kerone said. "Are we staying another night?"
"If we let the kids go to the party we might as well," Ashley pointed out. "They can sleep on the ship, and we'll get them back to Earth tomorrow."
A nearby splash alerted them, and she turned in time to see Carlos slogging through the water with a wet bundle in bright red curled against his chest. He lifted his chin to acknowledge them, and they were careful not to call out until he spoke first. Neither of them wanted to be responsible for waking a sleeping child.
"Hey," he said, quietly but not quite in a whisper. "I'm taking her inside. Want to see the ship?"
Ashley glanced at Kerone, who shook her head. "I saw it," she murmured. "You go ahead. I'll stay out here with Hope."
Squeezing her shoulder, Ashley whispered a fervent, "Thank you," and Kerone shooed her away.
"Here," Carlos said, shifting Coral a little to the side and holding out his arm. "You can do the honors."
She linked her arm through his, pressed the side of his communicator, and smiled when the bright ocean surface disappeared. The light was dimly purple and the floor was dry under her feet. There was the quiet hum of water cycling all around them, but the humid air was perfectly breathable.
"Nice," Ashley murmured, looking around. "How much of it is atmospheric?"
"Depends on the passengers," Carlos said, wrapping both arms around Coral again and hefting her higher. "Right now, just this room and a couple of others."
There was an actual bed on the near wall, and Ashley didn't know why that surprised her, since it wasn't like Aquitians didn't sleep in beds. When Carlos pulled another bed out from underneath it--with his foot--she had to smile. Like a trundle bed. This one, covered with little colored dolphins, was clearly Coral's.
She wasn't wearing shoes. Carlos didn't try to change any of her clothes. He did pull several pillows and a blanket out from a trunk at the end of the bed, wedging them around her so tightly that Ashley blurted out, "Do you co-sleep with her?"
"Sometimes," Carlos said. "More when she was a baby. No one could promise us she wouldn't unexpectedly stop breathing, so. She's gotten more independent as she gets older."
She'd seen Carlos without Coral once since they'd arrived on Earth last week. If his daughter wasn't with him, she was with Sylvie. Ashley felt, as she often did around her old friends, a little guilty for complaining about parental responsibility. Her family not only had twice as many parents as kids, but it also consisted of mostly human and very capable children.
Carlos was putting a cap on what looked like a bottle. It was opaque, but Ashley assumed it had water in it. It must be totally sealed, since he laid it on the bed next to Coral and stood up. Taking his phone out of his pocket, he pointed it at the bed and pressed some kind of code into the keys.
"Baby monitor," he said, when he saw her expression. He pointed at the corners of the bed with the phone, and a single blue light flashed from each of them. "Billy. Saved her life three times before she was a month old."
Ashley widened her eyes, giving her head a shake when he caught her gaze again. "You guys are pretty amazing with her."
"Yeah, well." He flashed a smile at her. "You're our inspiration."
She blinked. "Really? Why?"
"I know Kae wasn't easy," he said with a shrug. "And, let's face it: me and Aura have a hard enough time keeping ourselves together, let alone making it work with anyone else. The fact that the four of you haven't killed each other yet is pretty impressive."
It was the nicest thing he'd said about her family in... ever, maybe. He'd come around, she knew, since that horrible time he accused Andros of cheating. And he'd been nothing but tolerant after Hope was born. She'd always wondered, though, if maybe it was just tolerance.
Now she thought she might have doubted him all this time for nothing.
"Thanks, Carlos," she managed, smiling back at him. "You know, a good friend once told me, 'hold on to the best and deal with the rest.'"
"Uh-huh." Carlos' smile deepened. "Sounds like a smart guy."
"Yeah," she agreed, sliding her arm through his again. "He is."
Terra Venture is currently racing through space with an unlivable city dome and no engine power to speak of, so it's been mostly evacuated except for a skeleton crew still hoping to save it and bring it home to the New World (now Mirinoi). Getting the dolphins out of the ocean dome was something of a challenge with just the Megaship, so Aquitar sent a special water ship to ferry them all to Mirinoi.
Carlos ended up being the one to bring the special ship. He also brought his daughter and her favorite babysitter (apparently Sylvie's summer job is to babysit Coral) and has so far managed to complain less about this than anyone else, despite the fact that Ashley, Andros, Zhane, and Kerone actually volunteered to go help Terra Venture, and they have a full-time nanny to watch their kids. (Thanks Aoife!)
Finally, Tessa's bachelorette party is tomorrow night, which isn't mentioned, but that's why they have to get back to Earth. Yay not having the party the night before the wedding!
by Starhawk
"Ali." Rebecca's voice was a little surprising, since Ali had thought she'd left for the night. "What are you doing?"
"Bioanalysis," she said without looking up. She and microscopes didn't get along very well, but self-contained optics used a lot less power than virtual projectors. Power was being carefully monitored at the landing site right now. "Maria made a list; it's out by the--"
For a moment, Ali couldn't think of the word. She waved in the direction of the tent door absently. "Out front. Next door. Field tent."
"Why?" Rebecca asked, and that made Ali turn and frown at her.
Rebecca wasn't wearing her jacket. Her hair had been pulled back, and she looked considerably neater than the last time Ali had seen her. More casual, maybe, but definitely neater. Ali squinted, trying to put her finger on the difference.
"I mean," Rebecca continued patiently, "why are you doing it? Why are you doing it now? And when are you planning to sleep? I hope you've at least eaten since last night."
"Last night?" Ali repeated. She glanced toward the door, but the light of the encampment didn't tell her anything. "What time is it?"
The light from the door was suddenly obscured by a large and very familiar frame. Mike's eyes scanned the large medical tent, going from table to table until he found her. Rebecca was saying something, but she glanced over her shoulder when she saw Ali staring, then moved hastily out of the way as Mike strode toward them.
"Dr. Ali," he greeted her. He nodded to Rebecca briefly before adding, "You busy?"
"Uh, yeah," she said, rolling her eyes. "Why else would I be sitting here? This isn't what I do for fun."
"Good," he said. "Come on. Official business."
"No, wait." Rebecca protested before she could. "Can't your official business wait until after she's gotten some rest? She's been at it all night."
Mike gave her a longer look this time, a smile gracing his expression. "Well, since my official business is to make sure she gets some rest, preferably after she's eaten, no."
"Hello," Ali said, waving at them. "Sitting right here."
"Will you join me for breakfast?" he asked, very courteously. Like he hadn't just been talking about making her rest, lying to her coworkers, and generally getting in the way of anything she might try to do.
"Only because you asked so nicely," she said, rolling her eyes at him. "Let me put this stuff away first." She was, admittedly, more hungry than she'd bothered to do anything about in hours.
"If Maria's list is going to tell me to do exactly what you're doing," Rebecca said, "you might as well leave it out and save me some time."
Ali didn't have to be told twice. She was still surprised to step out of the tent and see bright blue sky overhead, though. She really had missed the transition from camp lighting to full daylight--and she knew her confusion didn't go unnoticed.
"Welcome to tomorrow," Mike murmured, giving her a smile when she glanced sideways at him. "First thing Leo learned about being a Ranger: just because you can do it doesn't mean you should."
She scoffed. "I don't think Leo ever learned that lesson."
He laughed aloud, and she smiled to herself. Point taken, nonetheless. She'd had it demonstrated countless times; the Power would keep you on your feet until there was nothing left, and you wouldn't even know it was happening until you keeled over from... well. That was the question, wasn't it. How far would it let you go?
TJ had had his suspicions after the Phantom Ranger incident. Sure, they all said the Power had kept Saryn alive when he wanted to die. But TJ wasn't the only one who thought Phantom had been killing himself slowly long before he met Cassie, and no one was sure if he had bent the Power to his will or if it had taken advantage of his condition to create--and steadily burn out--the perfect fighter.
Weren't the Psycho Rangers just another example of the dangers of unchecked Power?
"You have to eat more in between," Mike was saying, and she'd missed the beginning of it but she recognized the lecture. "It doesn't seem to work that way with sleep, which is... odd. I mean, you crash, but not as badly as you'd expect."
"Eat more, sleep less," Ali agreed absently. "Basic Ranger code."
"You know this." He sounded like he'd just realized. "Were you just going to let me babble at you until...?"
"I was thinking about something else," she admitted.
She could hear the smile in his voice when he said, "I don't know whether that makes me feel better or not."
"It was relevant?" Ali offered, teasing him with an almost-apology. "I was wondering how much the Power encourages us to act against our own self-interest. You know, for a greater good. Compared to how much it protects us."
Mike didn't bat an eye. "There's a difference between enabling and encouraging. I don't think the Power has intent, do you?"
"I don't know," she said slowly. "We talk about it like it does. 'May the Power protect you.' That's not just a--a symbol, a talisman, that's something we actually expect. We expect it to actively intervene on our behalf."
"Really?" Mike moved around a couple of people guiding cargo on antigrav lifts, pacing her easily even with the extra steps. "It sounds like an invocation to me. Like, of spirits or divinity or something. You don't really expect them to do anything, you just mention them out of respect, or... acknowledgment that anything can happen. That it's out of your hands."
"Um, I think some people do expect something to happen when they pray." She shot him an amused look as he bumped her shoulder, apparently by accident as they rounded yet another tent. "That's why they do it."
"Mike." Natan came that close to doing the same, except that he reached out to touch her on purpose, as an apology for being in their way. "Did Kendrix find you? She was looking for you when she left the SMART camp."
"No." Mike looked around like she might appear at any moment. "Serious?"
Natan shrugged. "Apparently not. Make sure you stop by one of the mess tents, though; they're planning a touchdown feast for tonight and they want to get a headcount of allergies and meat-eaters and what have you."
"Dietary's supposed to have things like that on record," Mike said, frowning.
"New world, new plan," Natan said with a grin. "They're trying to be more community-oriented. Less dependent on computers."
"Not everyone has power to spare," Ali added. "It's easier to use handhelds than get remote database access from here."
"For departments," Natan agreed, edging around them. "Most of the colonists aren't allowed to charge personal devices until we get some kind of sustainable power distribution going. It's worth remembering how to write things down."
"We'll have hydroelectric up and running by the end of the week," Mike told him. "If you see Kendrix again, tell her I'm in the officers' mess."
"Um, why?" Ali wanted to know. "I don't know any of the officers. Is the food better there?"
"Okay, I'm going to be wherever Ali wants to eat," Mike said, holding up his empty wrist and twisting it once to make a morpher appear. "She can call me."
Natan gave him a jaunty salute, two fingers and as non-military as it came, even as he backed away. Tossing a smile in Ali's direction, he offered, "I recommend the biscuits," before he turned and strode off into the maze of temporary tents.
"She can always call you," Ali said. "It must be something she didn't want to say over the comm."
"Is there a doctors' mess?" Mike asked, giving her a quizzical look. "Somewhere all your friends hang out?"
"There's a kids' mess," she said, because having the doctor argument again wasn't going to change anything. "They get all the comfort food. And they'll be glad to have a couple of extra chaperones for a while."
"So I won't get to have an actual conversation with you," he remarked, and it was hard to tell how much he was disappointed and how much he was just complaining to be funny.
"Which would be so different from the officers' mess," she said dryly. "At least endless interruptions are cuter when they come from kids."
Mike inclined his head in gracious defeat. "Point," he admitted, a smile playing about his lips.
The nearest kids' mess was about fifty-fifty, actually, as families countered the effects of jet lag by sleeping in. There wasn't any call for chaperoning, just noise tolerance as the kids yelled and ran and occasionally sat down long enough to eat something. There weren't any chairs, but the morning was beautiful and the mess had been set up buffet style. She and Mike followed the crowd outside, carrying colony food out into the light of their new home.
"Feeling okay?" he asked, out of the blue. He'd pointed out a place under the trees, no doubt recently vacated, and they sat close enough to watch the activity but sheltered enough that they might not have to be part of it.
"I... yeah," she said. The question caught her off guard, and she thought about it for a minute. "Actually, I don't know. I think so. Why?"
He smiled. "Maybe because I don't know either?" he offered. "I figured maybe I could follow your lead."
It made her laugh, and she saw him draw in a breath and let it out deliberately. "Yeah," he said, more quietly. "That works."
Ali sobered, studying him. "Is it weird, being here again?" she asked after a moment.
"It's weird being here at all," he said. "I mean, it's not the new world, but it might as well be. And we didn't expect to get here for... well, a lot longer. I don't know if anyone was really--ready to start building yet."
"I hadn't gotten to the settling down part," she admitted. "I guess that's what you mean, right? I think I'm still in 'flying off into space' mode. Great adventure, totally temporary... I hadn't quite gotten used to life on Terra Venture, to tell you the truth."
"Yeah." Mike was playing with his food; there was no other word for it. "I can't let go of the idea that we have to look out for Terra Venture. It's still out there. But there's so much we have to do here, and--"
"And where do you start," she said, when he just stopped and stared down at the ground for a long moment.
"Yeah," he said, but he shook his head. "Actually... I kind of feel like I've already done it. That's Estavan, I guess. Everything here is a little... familiar."
"Does that suck?" she asked. "Because no one you remember is here? Or does it help because the planet isn't as strange as it could be?"
He looked up, a pensive expression on his face. "I don't know," he said, looking at her. Looking through her, almost. She had no idea what he was seeing right now. "I guess that's why I asked you."
Ali smiled, hoping it looked more reassuring than confused. "Well, at least you know you're in good company."
His expression lightened in response. "True," he said, lifting his glass in a mock toast. She grabbed hers and met him halfway, and he added, "To good company."
"To good company," she echoed, taking a drink of her juice. "Also, thanks for pulling me out of the Medlab camp. I definitely lost track of time there."
He swallowed and set his glass down on the ground beside him. "Hey, pulling you out of Medlab is a skill I've honed. I have to stay in practice."
"Small problem with the plan, though." She honestly couldn't tell from looking how many of the people who walked by had slept since arriving on Mirinoi. Everyone was wearing the clothes they'd arrived in. "The resting thing."
"Okay, I'm tired," he told her. "So I'm not going to believe you if you tell me you don't need to sleep."
She raised her eyebrows at him. "Did you just imply that I should get tired more easily than you?"
"No," he said, giving her the same look right back. "I implied that we should be experiencing exactly the same degree of tiredness. Given that we both work the day shift, stayed up all night, and now have identical magic swords that make us less likely to make reasonable decisions about when to eat and sleep."
"So we have to remind each other?" she suggested, softening.
"Something like that," he agreed, but the smile he gave her made her think that the "something" was more flattering rather than less.
Thinking about it more fairly, she realized, "Hey, does this mean I should practice pulling you out of Command? I mean, if we're going to keep things even..."
A grin broke across his face. "That plan has my full support. Let me know what I can do to encourage it."
Which wasn't exactly the answer she'd been expecting, and she had almost no idea what to do with it. "Wow," she said aloud. "I do need a break. I think you just out-flirted me."
Calling him on it didn't stop him. "I always out-flirt you," he teased. "I'm glad you noticed."
"Were you waiting for me to notice?" she asked curiously. "Because Kai says that pointing it out only makes Leo worse."
That, on the other hand, made him stop and stare at her. "Kai says--what? Really? You and Kai talk about me and Leo?"
She had to laugh at his expression. "No! When do I see Kai? He doesn't even like me!"
"You just made that up," Mike realized.
"And you proved it was true," she teased.
"Thereby preventing me from flirting with you," he continued, giving her a speculative look. "Am I coming on too strong? Because I can back off."
Ali blinked. "Are you--I mean--" As confident and as straightforward as he seemed, she hadn't expected him to say that. Maybe... not because he'd said it, but because she hadn't been sure he was really doing it.
"You're flirting with me on purpose," she blurted out. "Really?"
"I hope I'm not doing it badly enough that it looks like an accident," he said with a smile. "If it's too much, I can tone it down."
"So, not like Leo," she said dryly, trying to think. Or cover. Or something. Mike was flirting with her on purpose. She had no idea what to say to that.
"There are a few differences," Mike agreed. And that was all he said.
"Um... I don't want you to back off?" she offered awkwardly. "I just--don't know what to say."
"I know I'm not--it's--" He didn't look away, but she thought maybe her clumsiness was catching. "It's still strange to touch people, but I'm getting used to it. I used to be more... it' s not that I can't," he said quickly. "I don't even know if you want me to."
"Wait, what?" She felt the sudden urge to laugh. "What are we--are you apologizing for moving too fast, or not fast enough?"
The corner of his mouth quirked, which she found suddenly and unashamedly adorable. "Which would you prefer?"
Ali did laugh then, because she could. "You know, if we've been dating all this time, you could have told me. Rebecca always asks, and I always say no, you just hang out with me because I'm the one who patched you up after Mirinoi. The first time on Mirinoi," she amended.
"I hang out with you because I like you," he said. "I'd have asked you out, but I was afraid you'd say no. Seemed easier to just keep showing up and hope for the best."
"I like that you show up," she admitted. "I just--" And even now, she didn't know whether to say it or not, but she always had before and... well, he kept showing up. "I mean, you were married, so I didn't know."
"I was married to two beautiful women," he said quietly. "I love them. I miss them. But that was a long time ago. I don't want the fact that I loved them to keep me from ever loving again."
She nodded. He talked about them, sometimes, and she was glad to hear stories of Estavan's home. But she had never been sure from the way he talked whether he was ready to move on or not. She hadn't known Mike before Estavan's loss, so she had no way to judge the progress of his mourning.
"I wouldn't want that, either," she said.
Mike lifted his glass in her direction again. "One of many reasons," he said, in a more normal tone of voice, "that I steal you from Medlab any chance I get."
"Or make up," she added, picking up her glass and tapping it against his before he could take a drink. "You're very creative."
He took this as a compliment, as she'd assumed he would. "Thank you," Mike agreed. "You're very inspirational."
Her imaginary Kai was right, she thought. Calling attention to the flirting only made them more audacious. Luckily, she was fine with that.
She still didn't have a place to sleep, though, an inevitable issue when he asked her where she was staying. "Hadn't really gotten that far," she admitted. "It didn't seem that important when we first landed, and now that it's already tomorrow it seems weird to ask."
"Well," he said. "Officers' Square isn't full."
"A square?" she repeated, hoping her tone conveyed even half her amusement. "You have a square now?"
"Triangle sounded like something you get lost in," he offered. "'Circle' didn't sound strong enough, and anything from five sides on up has too many syllables."
She had to concede at least the latter half of his point. But she couldn't resist saying, "Maybe it would be more full if people didn't have to say 'I'm in Officers' Square' every time someone asked them where they were."
"You can call it a rose garden, for all I care." But the laughter in his eyes said he did care, and he would pay close attention to whatever she picked. "The point is, I have an extra cot in my tent that no one is using.
"I'm not trying to make you move in or put you in a weird spot or anything," he added quickly. "I just figure it'd be easy--for today at least--to have a place you didn't have to set up yourself."
It did sound delightfully easy to Ali's tired brain.
"Besides," Mike was saying. "I got you a present."
"What?" She tried to say it in a way that disguised her yawn, but it just didn't happen. "A present for what?"
"For everything," he said, but he looked sort of neutral about it. Now he was the one trying to hide his expression--and he was doing a much better job than she had been. "But I don't think you're going to like it."
"Well, thank you, Mr. Cryptic," she said, amused. "Does this have anything to do with sleeping?"
"Depends where you end up sleeping."
There was no getting anything out of him when he got like this, so she didn't try. "Officer Camp it is," Ali said, watching a little boy in clothes that were definitely not colony issue scamper into the mess tent. "Did the Mirinoans arrive overnight?"
"Yeah." Mike followed her gaze. "Families usually travel together."
"Did you?" she blurted out without thinking.
He just nodded.
The little boy zipped out of the tent again a moment later, several adults in tow--none of them native to Mirinoi, as far as Ali could tell. They all moved off together, and for once, she was glad she didn't have to know. The colony could get by without her for a few hours... though she did wonder briefly about Mike.
Commander Stanton had stayed with Terra Venture throughout the evacuation, and as far as she knew that hadn't changed. Leaving Mike the ranking officer at the landing site--in name at least, if not in practice. She figured it was better not to ask either way: if he was in charge, he needed the break more than she did, and if he wasn't, it was likely to be a sore spot that she'd do better to avoid.
"So, out of curiosity," she began, and really, why did she open her mouth? She clearly had no internal censor anymore. "If you're here, who's running the colony?"
"Councilor Renier and her swarm of civilian minions," Mike replied. "I overheard her telling one of them that she'd taken a nap and was 'perfectly ready for the day.' I figure, if the Council's that confident in the day? They're welcome to it."
So, a sore spot, but not for the reasons she'd thought. "So they're making the decisions," she said, just to make sure.
He shrugged. "The GSA's job was to get us here. The New World constitution took effect the moment the first colonist set foot on the planet. It's the Council's game now."
"Well," she said after a moment too long. "I guess that's fair."
"Hey, it means I get to sleep." His tone was significantly less irritable all of a sudden, and he flashed a smile in her direction. "I'm not complaining."
She couldn't resist adding, "Anymore," and he laughed.
"It was always supposed to be this way," he admitted, bracing his arms behind him and leaning back a little. "I'm fine with it."
"Me too," she said impulsively. "I assume this means I won't see you less, anyway."
"Not unless you want to," he agreed. "I'm a little worried about what this Defender thing is going to mean for you and Maya, but I'm pretty sure you're more ready for it than I was. So. Let me know if I can help."
"And look," she said, amused. "Suddenly you're counseling people. I told you your situation wasn't as unique as you thought it was."
This led to an argument over what she had told him and when, what he had known and why, and exactly what they were doing sitting outside the kids' mess tent when they were no longer eating. Especially considering the exhaustion that was starting to set in. Or at least make itself known--she was pretty sure it could have set in hours ago and she would have been too distracted to notice.
By the time they made it to the officers' tents, she had almost forgotten about her present. When Mike made her stop outside, she saw his uncomfortable expression and knew. The present, whatever it was, was definitely going to delay the moment when she was allowed to sleep.
"Before you go in," Mike was saying, "I didn't ask them to do this, okay?"
Ali gave him her best "stop being cryptic" look, which had never worked before but she was too tired not to try. "Uh-huh," she agreed.
"Okay," he said, "I might have asked one of your old teammates if they'd mind rescuing your bamboo plant. I know the buildings were meant to seal when the dome cracked, but it's not like we ever tested that outside of simulation. And if they were taking pets..."
"You're telling me my bamboo plant is inside your tent," Ali said, amused. That was sweet. Probably a huge breach of protocol somewhere, but that didn't make it less charming and she could keep her mouth shut.
"Not exactly." Mike glanced down. Probably in the direction of invisible morphers; she knew that look. "I'm saying that Ashley was the one who picked up your plant, and... she might have gotten a little carried away. They really like you."
"Well, you know how it is," she said. "You save their lives one time, and they think they owe you forever."
He smiled, pulling back the tent "door" and waving her through. The light that came through the bright yellow canvas made it look like morning, even inside. She didn't notice anything amiss at first--which was probably a testament to her tiredness, since his tent had three or four times as much stuff in it as anyone should rightfully have after an emergency evacuation.
The stuff looked an awful lot like...
"That's mine," Ali realized, staring at a very familiar duffel bag. A scrap of yarn on one of the straps distinguished it from the thousands of other standard-issue bags, and she knew the GSA tag on the far side would have her name on it. "Mike..."
"I know, I know." He held up his hands as though disclaiming responsibility. "I told them. I told her. But it's not like she was going to take it back. Everyone's going to get their stuff eventually; you just sort of... moved to the head of the line?"
"You save their lives one time," she repeated, more to herself than to him.
She couldn't look at it, somehow. She did manage to make a fuss over the bamboo plant, because she had been sad to think of it all alone back on Terra Venture... no one to water it, or talk to it, the possibility that the seals wouldn't work and all its air would escape before anyone could come back for it...
Ali didn't actually remember much of what happened before she woke up to the sound of Ashley's voice. She'd thought she might not be able to fall asleep, she knew that much. She must have thought it for a whole two seconds before she closed her eyes and forgot everything else.
As she lay there, on an uncomfortable cot beneath a yellow ceiling, things came back to her in no order at all. Standing on Mirinoi watching the Megaship touch down, watching evacuees file off. Being pressed into service to erect shelters in the medical camp. Mike sneaking her iPod into her hands when the sun made her bury her head under her pillow: and that explained the music, the background music she'd barely noticed, and the way her ear hurt a little as the earbud pressed into it.
She tried to roll over, found she didn't have enough room. She pulled the earbuds out and shifted under her--still standard issue blanket, but she saw the quilt her mom had made for her sticking out of one of the duffels at the end of her cot. She wondered if she would ever see Terra Venture again. She wondered why she was the one the Astro Rangers were looking out for.
Then she wondered why she wondered, because obviously. There was nothing she could do about the first, and there was no real reason to question the second. She was TJ's sister. They weren't going to pretend they didn't know her.
"Dolphins?" she blurted out, suddenly realizing what the conversation outside the tent was about. She shouldn't have said it aloud, especially when she wasn't even up yet. Sure enough, Mike appeared in the doorway a moment later, just as she was trying to push her braids out of her face and shake the sleep from her eyes.
"Hey, Dr. Ali," he said.
"Why do you call her Dr. Ali?" Ashley asked, ducking in under his arm before he could open the tent further. "Good morning, Ali!"
"It's not, is it?" She squinted at the light through the door, then up at the dome of the tent like that might help. "What time is it?"
"Three-ish," Ashley said, even as Mike shrugged. "At least, if you convert Mirinoan time to something like Earth time. Which everyone says you can't, but that's what they told me on KO-35, too. I say if it's mid-afternoon, it's about three o'clock. Problem solved."
It made Ali smile, and she wondered where Ashley was getting her energy from. Actually, she wondered when Ashley had gotten here at all. "Okay," she agreed. "Three is good. What did I miss?"
"Lunch," Mike put in. "But hey, you and everyone else, so there's food whenever you want it."
"Carlos," Ashley added. "He showed up in a fancy ship of his own and evacuated half the dolphin population of Terra Venture to Mirinoi. They're in the harbor now."
"More than half," Mike said. "Also, the Mirinoans have arrived in force. Medlab is staging a controlled freakout over the intermingling of germs."
"No kidding," Ali agreed, throwing everything back on her cot and tugging her shirt straight before she looked around for her shoes. "I should go. They're going to be testing everything in sight."
"Uh-uh," Mike said. "No. Trust me, you're the last person they want to see right now. They're not too thrilled with the Rangers setting a bad example of how to introduce previously isolated populations to each other."
"The Power protects us," Ashley reminded her ruefully. "We can't even carry things. Everyone else is potentially giving the Mirinoans chicken pox, or whatever, and who knows what they're giving you."
"Medlab's got it under control," Mike said firmly. "Or," he added, when she didn't look convinced, "if they don't, there's not a lot you're going to be able to do, since your physiology no longer represents either population. Congratulations. You just got yourself the afternoon off."
She stared at him, frozen where she was. "To do what?" she demanded. "Vision quest? Sword training?"
"Dolphin accommodation," he replied. "I need someone from biosciences, and they won't spare me anyone else. Kendrix has all her people on a strict rotation that involves color-coded alert levels. They're working in shifts--which, believe me, is a first for the scientists--and which shift you're on at any given time determines what level of alert you can be paged for."
Ali tried to sort that out in her head, but even Ashley looked bemused, so she said, "That sounds... complicated?"
"Well, they're the SMART ones." Mike smiled, pleased with himself, and she felt the corners of her mouth tug upward in response. "So, you want to help me?"
"Dophins, you said?" Like she ever didn't want something to do with the dolphins. "Does this involve field research?"
"It involves visiting the harbor, if that's what you mean," he said with a grin. "Ashley was just about to talk me into it. Apparently the Council has been slow to respond to aquaculture requests since splashdown. We're going to see if we can speed the process up some."
"Count me in," she agreed.
"We can wait if you want to change," Ashley offered. Just as Ali was about to ask if there was something wrong with her uniform, she added, "There could be time in the water involved, if you feel like getting wet."
Ali closed her mouth. She couldn't actually imagine Ashley in the water, but she wasn't going to put anything past her. "Okay," she agreed. "Since you guys seem to have rescued most of my clothes...?"
She didn't know exactly how to say "thank you" for that, especially since it still made her feel weird. Luckily, Ashley didn't seem to expect her too. In fact, Ashley surprised her again by wrinkling her nose and looking apologetic.
"Sorry about that," she said, and Ali blinked. "I couldn't not do it. I saw your jacket when I went to pick up your plant, and then your duffels were all right there... I know it's weird being the only one, but there are volunteers with air and exo-suits and digital inventories in the city right now. Other people are going to get their stuff too."
"We haven't written the city off," Mike added. "Kai is our voice of pessimism on that front, but Andros and Damon still think we might be able to slow it down before it gets here."
Something about this made Ashley laugh, and she said, "Andros is our voice of pessimism. If even he thinks it can be done? It'll get done."
"Wear your jacket," Mike suggested, apparently ignoring this. "It'll remind everyone you're special now and no one will complain."
"Okay, okay!" Ali rolled her eyes at them and shooed them both back. "Thank you. It was very nice of you; I'll change. Goodbye."
Ashley beamed at her, Mike winked for no apparent reason, and the two of them disappeared. Ali hadn't had any idea what jacket they were talking about--she'd assumed her Medlab jacket, not that that made any sense--until she went to rescue some shorts and a t-shirt from a duffel bag and found her Mega V jacket on top.
V6, the jacket said, with a picture of the earth limned in silver. Jean jackets, one for each member of Tessa's team, as improvised by DECA after the battle at Rysia. She wasn't sure wearing it would make her any less conspicuous, but her choices were that, her Medlab jacket, or going without. It was a jungle out there, quite literally, and while the temperature might be kind to bare arms, she knew the undergrowth wouldn't be and she had no certainties about the sun here.
She tried her Medlab jacket. She couldn't see what it looked like, but it felt silly over her regular clothes, so she ended up wearing the jean jacket anyway. Mike smiled when he saw it, and Ashley didn't seem to notice. Ali tried not to look for anyone else's reaction as they made their way out of the officer camp.
Ashley could see the sparkle off the water through the trees before she could hear the shouting that bounced across it, and maybe that was a good sign? She'd left Kerone with the kids, and Carlos and Silvy too. They'd given Aoife the day off after her exclusive and nonstop supervision of the kids during the evacuation effort, not to mention the attack before it, but Kerone had assured her she could manage both children alone if Carlos and Silvy also disappeared.
"Is that the beach?" Ali asked, ducking under and around giant broad-leafed undergrowth to pace her. Mike was walking ahead of them, following the GSA markers on the trees and occasionally holding branches for them.
"Yes," Mike said over his shoulder. "Apparently they're using the seaship as a dock to--"
He kept talking, but Ali was closer and she spoke right over him. "Okay, how long have you been up?" she demanded. "Coming to get me and ordering me to sleep is only cute if you're looking for an excuse to do it too, which I totally thought you were!"
"I was," he protested, turning around and ducking backwards under a branch that he held up and out of the way for them. "I just woke up before you, that's all."
Ali turned to Ashley in silent appeal.
"I didn't see him around camp until a few minutes ago," Ashley promised, looking from one of them to the other. "I have no idea what he was doing before that."
"Sleeping," Mike said. "Well, going through your things for your music when you woke me up, but the rest of the time I was sleeping."
Ashley could see the ship now, glinting purple-white just under the surface of the water. There were definitely people on it, too far away to make out who, and she thought she could see fins. That part was probably imagination, but she didn't care.
Mike and Ali were still bickering, so she didn't point out how pretty the beach was or how lovely the trees and tertiary dunes were all around them. Zhane loved the beach, but they didn't go as often as they had when she first arrived on KO-35 because Kae couldn't stand it for very long. She'd expected him to be playing along the path somewhere, but if they hadn't seen him yet maybe Kerone had let him wander off in another direction.
"Wow." Ali's startled response made it clear that she'd just noticed. The ship, at least, if not the increasingly wide view of beach before them. And the colonists coming toward them. "That's pretty impressive."
"Can you see the ship?" Mike asked, stepping out of the way of one of the markers to make room. Ali stepped back too, though, making way for the colonists, and everyone nodded to everyone else and Ashley wondered if they all knew each other yet or if they were still working on it.
"Kind of," Ali said, edging out around him again. "Unless the bottom of the ocean is really white here."
"That's the seaship," Ashley assured her. "It's ridiculously maneuverable. The dolphins don't want to come in too close to shore, obviously, but everyone needs to be able to communicate."
"And it's faster to walk out than it is to swim," Mike put in.
"Unless you're Carlos," Ashley finished. "Or Coral."
"That Sylvie's pretty fast, too," Mike said. "She have some dolphin in her?"
Maybe it was all the conversations with Carlos, but Ashley couldn't tell whether he was joking or not. "She spends a lot of time on Aquitar," she said instead. "Swimming is how they get around."
"Wouldn't have guessed," Mike said with a grin.
"Wow," Ali said again, as they came out from under the trees at last. "How big is that ship, anyway? And how can it be submerged in such shallow water?"
"Those are the fins," Ashley offered. "The part that comes right up to the beach. The rest of the ship is designed to be compartmentalized for safety reasons, so it actually isn't that big."
"Next to your battleships," Mike said under his breath. "Or your space colonies."
"Yeah, exactly." Now Ali was smiling too. "It looks plenty big to me."
That was when they were spotted. Kerone mentally alerted her that Hope was on her way before Ashley found either of them with her eyes, and everyone wanted Mike's attention all of a sudden. He put a hand on Ali's shoulder when she tried to wander away, so Ashley sent her a sympathetic look as she went in search of her daughter.
Ali didn't look too upset about it.
Sylvie intercepted her almost as soon as Hope did, and she was dripping but her clothes were dry and Ashley thought they were all going to have to visit Aquitar again. Soon. Hope's clothes were plastered to her skin and twisted around her body in such a way that meant they were going to dry several sizes larger than they'd started out. With Sylvie behind her, in a sparkly water-shedding Aquitian tunic and trousers, the contrast was inevitable.
"Kerone sent me to check on Kae," she offered, when Hope stopped babbling long enough to get a word in edgewise. "I'll be back in a few minutes?"
"Okay," Ashley agreed, petting Hope's hair and absently trying to straighten it a little while her daughter complained she was pulling. "Let us know if you need help." She had no idea where Kae was or what he was doing, but if Kerone wasn't teleporting there herself--this second--it probably wasn't as dangerous as most of the things he did.
"How come there aren't any dolphins at home, Mommy?" Hope was trying to shy away from the hair patting, still holding Ashley's hand as she tugged her toward the water's edge. "They say they go everywhere. But there aren't any at home."
"Well, there aren't many humans back home, either." Ashley let go of her hand long enough to pull off her shoes and roll up her pants before she followed Hope out into the water. "We live on the edge of a lot of things. It isn't an easy place to be, and there aren't many people that are brave enough to live there."
"I think it's easy," Hope declared. She hoped up onto the fin of the seaship, still splashing in the skim of water that covered it as it stretched away from shore.
"Yes, but you're very brave," Ashley told her with a smile. The seaship was smooth and warm under her feet, and she was willing to bet that whatever kind of dock the colonists put in wouldn't feel as nice as this.
"Why is it so hard?" Hope wanted to know. "Aren't dolphins brave? I think they're brave; they came all the way here and they didn't even have a ship of their own. And they're really nice. One of them gave me a ride out to a big rock!"
"That was very nice of them," Ashley agreed. She caught sight of Kerone, finally, standing on the far edge of the seaship's fin. Waving to them. She lifted her free hand to wave back. "Did your ma go in the water with you?"
"No." Hope dismissed this idea with a bounce and a turn of her head. "I went all by myself! Even Coral couldn't keep up, and she's from Alandia!"
Ashley almost said, "Where?" before she remembered something about dolphins not using the name "Aquitar" and decided it might be better to ask someone else later. "That must have been a very fast dolphin you were with," Ashley said.
"They're having a party later," Hope told her. "Can we go? They said we were invited!"
"The dolphins are having a party?" Ashley repeated, just to make sure they were still talking about the same thing.
"Yup!" Hope looked very pleased with herself. "Can we go? Sylvie's going, and she says it's going to be fun. And Coral gets to go, and she's little!"
"Maybe," Ashley said. "I'll have to see what your ma thinks about it first."
"She thinks it'll be fun too!" Hope exclaimed. "So now you don't have to talk to her!"
Ashley tried not to smile. "I think I do."
"Why?" Hope whined. "You already know it's fun!"
"Yes, but what if something more fun is happening somewhere else?" Ashley asked. "We have to compare notes."
"I don't think you have notes on fun things," Hope told her. "I think all your notes are on boring things." She pulled free and stalked away--at least as best a small child could stalk in water that came almost to her knees.
"Hey," Kerone said, splashing over to join her. "I see you found Ali."
Only then did she remember why she'd gone looking for Ali in the first place. "Totally forgot to ask her about the wedding," she said with a sigh.
"Well, it's not like you have anything else on your mind," Kerone said wryly. "Was Mike with her, or did you pick him up on the way?"
A reluctant smile tugged at her lips. "She was sleeping in his tent," Ashley said, glancing back toward the shore. Mike and Ali were invisible in the midst of the drifting colonists. "Separate cots, but all her stuff was still there. Very cute."
"Maybe she'll ask him to come to the wedding with her," Kerone said. "People can bring dates, right? Or is it just family members?"
"No, it's traditional to bring a date," Ashley said. "If I ever remember to invite her."
"Are you okay?" Kerone asked, studying her face.
She shook her head. "Yeah," she said, but Kerone clearly didn't believe her, so she tried again. "No, I mean, I managed to stay on Hope's good side for a whole two and a half minutes. So that's a good thing."
"Yes," Kerone said, sounding amused. "It is. That's better than I've managed to do all day; she's in a terrible mood. Don't let it get to you. She'll wear herself out in the water and we'll make her take a nap before dinner."
"You think?" Ashley glanced out over the water. "She says the dolphins told her there was a party tonight."
"Which is perfect," Kerone agreed. "No nap, no party. She'll need the sleep to stay up anyway. You know the kids don't do well with time changes."
Ashley made a face, more because she shouldn't have to be reminded than because she disagreed. "Kae's fine."
"He's also seven years older than she is," Kerone said. "And believe me, he's off sulking too. He's just doing it about something else."
Ashley sighed again, because she could with Kerone, and she got an arm around her shoulders and a sideways hug for her trouble. "Think I should go try and find Ali?" she asked at last.
"I guess it depends when you want to leave," Kerone said. "Are we staying another night?"
"If we let the kids go to the party we might as well," Ashley pointed out. "They can sleep on the ship, and we'll get them back to Earth tomorrow."
A nearby splash alerted them, and she turned in time to see Carlos slogging through the water with a wet bundle in bright red curled against his chest. He lifted his chin to acknowledge them, and they were careful not to call out until he spoke first. Neither of them wanted to be responsible for waking a sleeping child.
"Hey," he said, quietly but not quite in a whisper. "I'm taking her inside. Want to see the ship?"
Ashley glanced at Kerone, who shook her head. "I saw it," she murmured. "You go ahead. I'll stay out here with Hope."
Squeezing her shoulder, Ashley whispered a fervent, "Thank you," and Kerone shooed her away.
"Here," Carlos said, shifting Coral a little to the side and holding out his arm. "You can do the honors."
She linked her arm through his, pressed the side of his communicator, and smiled when the bright ocean surface disappeared. The light was dimly purple and the floor was dry under her feet. There was the quiet hum of water cycling all around them, but the humid air was perfectly breathable.
"Nice," Ashley murmured, looking around. "How much of it is atmospheric?"
"Depends on the passengers," Carlos said, wrapping both arms around Coral again and hefting her higher. "Right now, just this room and a couple of others."
There was an actual bed on the near wall, and Ashley didn't know why that surprised her, since it wasn't like Aquitians didn't sleep in beds. When Carlos pulled another bed out from underneath it--with his foot--she had to smile. Like a trundle bed. This one, covered with little colored dolphins, was clearly Coral's.
She wasn't wearing shoes. Carlos didn't try to change any of her clothes. He did pull several pillows and a blanket out from a trunk at the end of the bed, wedging them around her so tightly that Ashley blurted out, "Do you co-sleep with her?"
"Sometimes," Carlos said. "More when she was a baby. No one could promise us she wouldn't unexpectedly stop breathing, so. She's gotten more independent as she gets older."
She'd seen Carlos without Coral once since they'd arrived on Earth last week. If his daughter wasn't with him, she was with Sylvie. Ashley felt, as she often did around her old friends, a little guilty for complaining about parental responsibility. Her family not only had twice as many parents as kids, but it also consisted of mostly human and very capable children.
Carlos was putting a cap on what looked like a bottle. It was opaque, but Ashley assumed it had water in it. It must be totally sealed, since he laid it on the bed next to Coral and stood up. Taking his phone out of his pocket, he pointed it at the bed and pressed some kind of code into the keys.
"Baby monitor," he said, when he saw her expression. He pointed at the corners of the bed with the phone, and a single blue light flashed from each of them. "Billy. Saved her life three times before she was a month old."
Ashley widened her eyes, giving her head a shake when he caught her gaze again. "You guys are pretty amazing with her."
"Yeah, well." He flashed a smile at her. "You're our inspiration."
She blinked. "Really? Why?"
"I know Kae wasn't easy," he said with a shrug. "And, let's face it: me and Aura have a hard enough time keeping ourselves together, let alone making it work with anyone else. The fact that the four of you haven't killed each other yet is pretty impressive."
It was the nicest thing he'd said about her family in... ever, maybe. He'd come around, she knew, since that horrible time he accused Andros of cheating. And he'd been nothing but tolerant after Hope was born. She'd always wondered, though, if maybe it was just tolerance.
Now she thought she might have doubted him all this time for nothing.
"Thanks, Carlos," she managed, smiling back at him. "You know, a good friend once told me, 'hold on to the best and deal with the rest.'"
"Uh-huh." Carlos' smile deepened. "Sounds like a smart guy."
"Yeah," she agreed, sliding her arm through his again. "He is."