Spacegal Chapter 6

No smut in this one, just lots of relationship building, tension, and bad puns

​ “Hello,” Geoffrey stepped into Cam's quarters, bowing slightly to her in greeting. “Is this a convenient time? I can come back if it isn't -” ​ “It's fine,” Cam waved him in as the doors slid closed behind him. “It's my day off tomorrow so I don't have to get to bed early.” ​ “Ah!” Geoffrey smiled, standing just inside the doorway. It was the first time she'd seen him since rushing off while they were hugging. Her cheeks flushed as she thought about it, and she glanced away quickly. ​ “It's just, uh – well it's a bit weird, actually,” Cam picked a t-shirt up off the back of a chair and threw it into the bedroom. ​ “Oh? You mean with Brat?” ​ “Yeah. He was, uh -” She frowned, scooping a pair of jeans up off the floor and draping them over her forearm; “In his tank, when I left for my shift last night. When I came home this morning– well, come and have a look,” She gestured him over to the corner of the room. ​ Hesitantly, Geoffrey strode over and looked up at where she was pointing, into the corner where the two walls met the ceiling. ​ “Oh,” Geoffrey leaned up on his toes and looked at the thing from both sides. “Oh, I see.” ​ When Cam had got home from her shift earlier that day, stripping clothes off as she wandered into the bedroom to change into something more comfortable, she noticed that Brat's tank was empty and there were little pools of water leading away across the floor. She'd looked all over; under the bed, under the furniture, in all of the cupboards, even in the toilet – until eventually she noticed the mass of chitin and webbing clinging to the corner of her living room that looked just about big enough to contain Brat at his current size. ​ “Yeah. You don't know what kind of creature he was, do you? Species or anything?” ​ Geoffrey shrugged. “I'm afraid I don't. We call them phaelis, but that just means any kind of unidentified critter, usually stow-aways that end up on board looking for food or shelter or otherwise find their way on board and can't find the way off again.” He stopped inspecting the cocoon and took a step back. “I did ask some colleagues if they had any idea what it might be, to no avail. I even searched the system network – I found some things that were a little similar, perhaps, but nowhere close enough to be a match. Certainly none that transitioned via a pupal phase, if that's what this is.” ​ Cam's head had started tingling as she listened to him speaking. She hadn't noticed before, or perhaps the quietness of her quarters, shielded from the ambient noise of the station, let her focus on it more – he had such a soothing voice. ​ “Do you think it's dangerous?” She also noticed that they were standing very close, side by side, her hand just a few inches away from his. ​ “I don't know,” His voice was almost a whisper. “I wouldn't like to say. Did it ever exhibit dangerous behaviour towards you? Seem threatening, or territorial?” ​ “No,” She shook her head. “There was that first night I brought it back – I woke up in the middle of the night because it was flicking water on me.” She blushed again suddenly, remembering that she had been dreaming about Geoffrey when Brat had woken her up that night, and hoped Geoffrey wouldn't notice the colour of her cheeks. Flustered, she turned away to take the jeans that were still over her arm into the bedroom, and in turning, brushed against Geoffrey's arm. He didn't move, or say anything. ​ “That seems more playful than anything,” He called back to her. ​ She shoved the jeans into a drawer, and the t-shirt she'd picked up earlier in alongside them. She was about to return to the living room when she glanced at Brat's tank, and drew a sharp breath at what she saw there. ​ “Holy shit. Come and see this!” She called to Geoffrey. She heard his footsteps padding across the living room and then felt him approaching behind her. ​ She pointed at the tank. While Brat had been a denizen of the glass rectangle he had kept the waters murky, presumably by secreting something – but now that he was no longer present, the waters had started to settle. The clarity that afforded was revealing some kind of formation in the substrate that she'd used to line the bottom of the tank; a structure, something Brat must have crafted. It was euclidean in formation, little towers with perfectly straight edges and mounds that were perfectly curved, stretching into and away from each other, connecting at angles that made her head hurt, and all decorated with symmetrical patterns made from the little coloured pebbles she'd put in there, embedded into the structures themselves. ​ “Is that – some kind of tank decoration you purchased?” Geoffrey hesitantly asked. ​ “No,” Cam whispered. “No, it is not. I mean, it's all stuff I put in there – sand, gravel, pebbles – but it was all just loose on the bottom of the tank. That – I don't know what that is. I guess Brat made it?” ​ “Fascinating,” Geoffrey leaned towards the glass, his hands neatly clasped behind his back. “Utterly incredible. Should we document it?” ​ “Document it?” Cam sat on the edge of her bed, trying not to look at the weird shapes and formations that Brat had brought into existence. ​ “Yes. We don't know what this creature is, where it came from – and I've never seen anything like this before. I feel that we should be documenting this, for scientific purposes. What if this is important?” ​ Cam shrugged, scratching her head. “I guess. Document it how?” ​ “I have a camera and scanning equipment in my quarters,” Geoffrey turned to her. “If it is not too much bother, might I fetch them and bring them here? I don't wish to inconvenience you, however – if you wish to sleep we could do this another time.” ​ “No, it's fine,” Her eyes flicked to the tank and her head started spinning again. She forced herself to look up at Geoffrey instead, but that wasn't much better, her sitting on the edge of her bed and him towering over her, in her bedroom, next to her bed, impossibly close. “I'm not tired, we can do it tonight if you want.” ​ “Excellent! I shall fetch them at once,” He practically bounced from the room, and then returned, leaning in through the open doorway. “Um... Would you like to come along for the walk?”

​ “I'll just be a moment,” he guided her into his quarters. “Lights, low warm,” He commanded the AI and a soft warm glow filled the room. ​ “Wow,” She mumbled, looking around. ​ Geoffrey turned away from her, a little bashful. He seldom had guests into his quarters – in fact he couldn't remember ever having a casual visitor. “You can look around,” He waved a hand around the room. “I just need to find my gear.” ​ “Take your time,” She said behind him, standing in front of the bookcase filled with his collection of old natural history volumes from the various planets he had visited. ​ He retreated into the far corner of the room and opened a large trunk of possessions he kept behind one of the easy chairs. The scanning equipment was easy to find – it was lying in its case right on top of the contents of the trunk. The camera would be a little more difficult. He moved around the room opening various chests and cabinets and drawers, and then moved his search into the bedroom. He could hear her walking around, hear the soft sliding of a book being drawn from its place on the shelf and the hiss as it was pushed back into place again. ​ Geoffrey smiled to himself, feeling overcome with a sense of warmth. The thought of anyone rifling through his collections usually filled him with some combination of dread and irritation, but with her here doing it, he was surprised at how comfortable he felt with it. More than comfortable – he wanted to encourage her to look at everything, to talk to him, tell him what she thought of it all. What would she make of the Pa'Tal warbeads from Veritath, speckled with the blue-green blood of generations of warriors that wore them? Or the preserved Arimanth flower in its little sealed glass cube with its alluring opalescent petals? ​ He found the camera in a container under the bed. With that and the case of scanner equipment in hand, he returned to the living room. She was standing in front of his Passotherium macrocua vivarium. ​ “Are these real, or holographs?” She asked, watching one of the little creatures wobbling its way across a branch, little butterfly-like wings fluttering on and off releasing little clouds of shimmering dust each time. ​ “Quite real,” He stood just behind her. “Do you like them?” ​ “I've never seen anything like them before. What are they? They're pretty awesome, man,” Her voice was a low, reverent whisper. ​ “Passotherium macrocua,” He recited. “From Sliri 280. Quite common there – I wouldn't think to keep any endangered species.” ​ “Common, but beautiful,” She replied. ​ “I'm glad you think so.” ​ “Sliri 280 – isn't that over in the Caslyria system?” ​ “Verily,” He smiled a little at her cartographic knowledge of the universe. ​ “That's quite a distance away. Have you travelled much?” ​ “I suppose,” He tucked the camera under his arm that was holding the case and used his now free hand to fiddle with the spines on his neck. He recognised the action as one of his nervous gestures, but she wouldn't know that. The conversation was bordering on discussing his past, and that made him uncomfortable. “Not as much as I'd like to. Alas one must work to provide the means for travel. I've found what I needed,” He stepped back from the vivarium. “Shall we return to your quarters?” ​ “Did I say something?” She turned to him, frowning a little, looking at where he rubbed his neck with his hand. “If I did, I'm sorry.” He sighed. What was it about this woman and deciphering his little quirks and foibles? ​ “No, you didn't. Well – you did, but it's – it's just me. You didn't do anything wrong. I just don't like talking about my past.” He was careful with his words, looking down at her feet because he couldn't quite face looking at that concerned expression she was wearing. ​ “Then we won't talk about it,” She closed the distance between them and rested her hand on his forearm briefly. “Come on, let's go back to my place and you can show me how your equipment works.”

​ Fuuuuuck, she chastised herself in her head the moment the sentence had slipped sneakily from her mouth and out into the great wide world, spoken, audible, obscene. ​ Geoffrey didn't seem to have picked up on the double entendre – or if he had, he hid it well. ​ “Your stuff is really cool,” She blurted, in a hurry to fill the silence between them as they navigated their way through the corridors back to her quarters. “I'm not saying that as an opening to talk about any of it, if you don't want to,” She quickly added, glancing across at him. He was focused on the ground in front of them, striding purposefully alongside her, no discernible expression on his face. “I just... I like it. Your place. It's cozy. I feel... Comfortable there,” She found herself rubbing the back of her neck now, her skin hot. “It's like a museum or something. I always loved going to museums when I was a kid.” ​ She looked across at him again, thought she caught him smiling for a brief instant. ​ “You can visit any time. I don't have visitors, really. I... Don't like the thought of people touching my things with their greasy fingers and clumsy hands. But when you did it,” He paused, flicking his eyes across to her quickly and then away to look at the floor ahead again, “It was fine. I didn't mind. I think I'd rather like you to visit again and spend some time with it all. If you wanted to, of course.” ​ “Yeah,” The corners of her lips forced themselves upwards into a little smile. “That would be cool.” ​ They reached her door and she let them both in. Geoffrey hovered just inside the doorway again, waiting for her to lead the way. ​ “Where shall we start?” She kicked her shoes off to one side of the door. “We should do the cocoon thing too, right?” ​ “Yes,” He nodded, setting the camera and case down on the coffee table, and then opening the case and pulling the contents from their slots in the foam moulding that kept everything secure. ​ “The camera is just a normal camera. This scanner equipment measures various readings – heat sensor, radiation, etcetera.” ​ “You've done this before?” She stood nearby and watched as he deftly extracted the components and began assembling various bits and pieces. ​ “In a manner,” He glanced over at her, and his forked tongue flicked briefly from between his lips. A little tingle coursed its way through her and she cleared her throat as if to push it aside. “I'm a bit of a hobbyist,” He continued. “Everything I collect is something I have some kind of interest in. I like discovering things, learning about things.” ​ “You're curious,” She smiled. “Well, I have no idea how that works but I'm a pretty fast learner.” ​ “So I've heard,” Geoffrey mentioned nonchalantly, focused on screwing a sensor array into a receiver. ​ “Oh?” She arched a quizzical brow. ​ Geoffrey set the assembled scanner components onto the coffee table and folded his arms in his lap, turning to look at her. ​ “You're somewhat of a frequent topic of conversation aboard the station,” He said, matter-of-factly. “I assumed you'd know?” ​ “I... actually don't,” She was frowning now. People were talking about her? What the Tizlel about? ​ He stood up, looking a little concerned. “It's nothing bad, I assure you. Quite the contrary, in fact. You're pretty well known for your on-the-fly ship repairs and space-walks. You're more competent than any of the other pilots and pretty much the only person anyone's ever met here who actually enjoys space-walking.” ​ “Oh,” She leaned back against the wall, folding her arms across her chest loosely, digesting this new information. ​ “Do you know Troesk, down in ship maintenance?” ​ “Yeah?” She nodded. “She works on the piece of crap I fly sometimes, keeps it running for me.” ​ “She tells a different story,” Geoffrey smiled. “She will regale anyone who listens with the tale of how you fixed a broken thruster on your ship that had misaligned and wouldn't disengage and was sending you spinning towards the wormhole. Says she listened to the comms recording and you were utterly unphased while you were out there clinging to the ship fixing it.” ​ Cam shrugged. “It was no biggie. I knew I'd get it fixed.” ​ “And the time the fuel line leaked over the heating system into the vents and started filling the cabin with a mildly corrosive gas that would have eaten through your skin and the fabric of the spacesuit so you put your suit on and flew the ship back from the roof after patching into the controls from your suit's on-board computer?” ​ “Oh, that was fun,” She smiled at the recollection. ​ Geoffrey tutted with amusement at her reaction. “You're somewhat of a legend on this station, and you didn't even know.” ​ She shrugged again, not sure what to say. “I just do what I need to.” ​ “And your insouciant spacegal attitude,” He smiled at her. ​ Cam chuckled. “'Spacegal'? I like it.”

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