Aspen was lying on her bed reading over Dr. Holt’s protocols, surprised to find it annotated with reasoning for choices of certain medications over others, in addition to their doses and alternatives. The examples she was given in A-school typically only gave indications and dosages, the one she was studying now was much more in depth. 

 

As she was reading over the annotation describing Dr. Holt’s choice on the use of ciprofloxacin over amoxicillin (a sub annotation remarking how remarkable the same drugs had been in use for centuries) for the treatment of urinary tract infections when her tab chimed. Quickly swiping to her messaging program, she found a message from Tara. 

 

• Tara: Hey, Aspen! I’m ready when you are!
• Aspen: I’ve been ready, lemme throw my shoes back on and we can meet up in the common room?
• Tara: I’ll meet you there!

 

Aspen slipped her boots back on and checked her appearance in her tab’s camera app, brushing her ear length hair out of her face and smiled. She was nervous. She wasn’t sure why, she obviously knew Tara was interested, or she wouldn’t have asked. Her real curiosity was more along the lines of wondering what Tara saw in her to pique her interests. She considered herself pretty, sure, but she saw plenty of other people on the ship she considered prettier than her. 

 

Shaking her head of these thoughts, she pocketed her tab and smacked her cheeks lightly, “Don’t fuck this up,” she said to herself, and exited her room.

 

As she passed through the hall towards the common room, her nervousness began to compound on itself, the butterflies in her stomach going haywire. Practically vibrating down the hall in excitement, she stopped just before the passageway to the common room and took a deep breath, releasing it slowly through her nose. 

 

Stepping through, she was greeted to the sight of the common room almost full. Almost every table in the area had people sitting at it, the din of conversation and the scraping of cutlery meshing together, any individual conversation impossible to listen in on unless you were face to face with the speakers. 

 

The cafeteria window had a line several people deep, Ericka churning out cups of noodles or handing out packages of self heated food as fast as she could. Aspen walked up to the handrail of the mezzanine and scanned the crowd seated below, searching for Tara. Not seeing her, she started for the stairs only to see her ascending them, two silver packages in her hands. Showered and changed, she was wearing a plain white t-shirt tucked into a pair of the Marine’s pale blue BDUs, her boots shining even in the low light. 

 

“Hey Aspen,” she held up one of the silver packs, “Hope you like curry!”

 

“Heck yeah,” she accepted one of the packages, “Do you wanna find a seat?”

 

Tara shook her head, “I know a quieter place, it’s too loud in here,” she turned toward the hallway Aspen had just come from, “Follow me!”

 

Aspen tilted her head in confusion, but dutifully followed, “What place?”

 

Tara turned her head and smiled at her over her shoulder, “You’ll find out when we get there.”

 

Eyebrows together, she dutifully followed Tara, the larger woman obviously enjoying Aspen’s confusion as she led her past sick bay, and her own room.

 

Aspen looked around as they passed her room, “Isn’t the only thing past here search and rescue?”

 

Tara chuckled, “Maybe on this level, but what about below?”

 

Aspen slapped her forehead, of course there would be something above or below. Why she hadn’t thought to look for a ladder or access hatch when exploring earlier she didn’t know, “I just assumed it was more cargo space.”

 

Tara shrugged, stopping at a hatch without a label indicating what lay behind it, “Technically you’re not wrong, but in this case I’ll say you are.”

 

Aspen touched her hand to her chest in mock offense, “Well, I never.”

 

Tara stuck her tongue out at her and opened the hatch, revealing a short hallway which ended in a ladder descending into a dark room, “Ladies first.”

 

Aspen approached the ladder apprehensively, unable to see where it ended due to the darkness, “You sure?”

 

Tara nodded, “C’mon, it’s not gonna hurt ya.”

 

Aspen bit her curry pouch between her teeth and began to descend the ladder, the light from the hallway above quickly fading. Just as she was about to be plunged into total darkness, her foot struck the floor, and upon doing so, the sound of a relay thunked and LED lights came to life. 

 

Looking around as her eyes adjusted to the lighting, she found herself in a small rectangular room occupied by a small desk with a terminal atop it, a bookshelf full of binders, and a couch. One wall of the room was floor to ceiling windows, the seals around them indicating their vacuum proof nature, the view showing the cargo hold of the ship, currently empty and only lit with emergency lighting.The couch in the room  was a orangish-red corduroy material and appeared older than Aspen was. She walked toward the bookshelf and looked at the binders, the labels indicating inventory lists up to a decade old. 

 

Turning around, she watched Tara descend the ladder and walk to the couch and plop down, the frame giving a small groan as her bulk dropped on it, “Pretty neat spot, huh?”

 

Aspen looked around the room again, “What is this place? How’d you find it?”

 

Tara chuckled, “Not my first time on one of these destroyer boats - this is the old cargo manager’s office. They haven’t used these in years since all the cargo is inventoried by A.I these days, so most sit empty. When I found out the Meili didn’t have hers sealed off, I came to check it out.”

 

“Wow,” Aspen pulled the chair away from the desk and moved it towards Tara and sat, “Are we allowed to be down here?”

 

Tara shrugged, “I assume there’s no rule against it considering it’s not locked. Forgiveness over permission or whatever.”

 

“I know the crew seem pretty lax and all but I’m not sure I’d go adopting that mindset on the first day,” Aspen ripped her curry pouch open and pulled the small bamboo spoon out, then activated the heating packet.

 

Tara opened hers as well, “Actually, I was gonna ask what the fuck was up with that? I thought Washington was gonna blow a gasket when he got on board.”

 

“Who?”

 

“Oh, the second lieutenant. He’s got a big stick up his ass. I’m sure he’s already writing an email to the Federation command about the captain as we speak.”

 

“Ah,” Aspen dipped the tip of her finger into her curry to see if it was warm enough to eat yet, “I mean, the crew is definitely unorthodox from what I’ve seen, but everything seems to run extremely smoothly. Did you see how clean everything is?”

 

Tara nodded, spooning some curry into her mouth, “Maybe it’s a morale thing? I was on a Marine corvette for Mars to Titan patrol for a couple years and the crew on this boat seem way happier than any other crew I’ve seen.”

 

“Huh,” Aspen took a bite of her curry and chewed, the mild spice not giving her the kick she would typically enjoy, “How old are you, anyway?”

 

“I’m twenty nine,” Tara dropped her spoon in her pouch, already having finished her meal, “Been to three different stations so far,” she leaned forward, “How old are you?”

“Twenty four as of like, two months ago. Navy boarding school kept me until I was twenty two and then I went to boot and then A-school,” Aspen made a rolling motion with her spoon, “Now I’m here.” 

 

Tara tilted her head to the side, “Navy boarding school? Why?”

 

Aspen choked on her bite of curry, then cleared her throat, “I, uh - my parents passed, and they were officers so I got sent to boarding instead of back to Earth.”

 

Tara looked to the floor, “Oh. Sorry I asked,” she looked back to Aspen, “Everyone’s got their thing though, I guess.”

 

Aspen nodded, “Yeah, they sure do. That was about ten years ago for me, now. Still hurts, I imagine it always will, but there’s no changing that past,” she dropped her spoon in her pouch and walked over to the desk and tossed it in a small trash bin, then made her way over to the couch and sat, facing Tara, “Where are you from?”

 

Tara turned to face her, “I grew up on Mars near Olympus Mons but my parents are from Greece, back on Earth,” she smirked and flexed her arm, her bicep bulging in her t-shirt, “I like to tell people I’m related to Hercules.”

 

Aspen giggled, “I kinda told my friend back from A-school I thought you were some kind of Mediterranean,” she “Lucky guess.”

 

Tara wiggled her eyebrows at her, “Oh, gossiping about me already? Only terrible things, I bet.”

 

“Oh, just the worst.”

 

Tara and Aspen shared a laugh, and Aspen pulled her tab out, “I actually promised him I’d get a pic… if you’re okay with it that is.” 

 

Tara nodded and scooted closer to Aspen on the couch to get into the angle of the camera, “Just be sure to get my good side.”

 

Aspen blushed as Tara moved closer, the smell of lilacs faintly tickling her nose as she put her face next to hers, “Your shampoo smells great,” she held up the tab, angling it just in time to see a wolfish grin cross Tara’s face before the other woman planted a kiss on her cheek just as she pressed the capture button on her tab.

 

Aspen’s already slightly blushing face went full maroon, her ears going hot immediately, “Ha,” was all she could manage to say, her tab still held up in the air.

 

Tara laughed, “Oh, that’s fucking adorable,” she looked at the tab’s screen to see the preview, then back to Aspen, “Sorry if it was too forward, though.”

 

Aspen shook her head, her hair bouncing slightly, she jumped to answer, her words spilling out of her mouth, “I just, uhm, wasn’t expecting it. Not that I didn’t like it or anything, but you know it was just a kiss on the cheek and I’m sending it to my friend Terrance and he is going to-”

 

Tara raised an eyebrow, and leaned back on the couch, spreading her arms along the back, “You are so easy to fluster,” she gave a wry smile, “And here I was worried you didn’t like me.”

 

Aspen quickly sent the picture off to Terrance and dropped her tab in her lap, then looked to Tara, “I do like you, you’re pretty, strong, and you seem to have a great attitude and head on your shoulders.”

 

Tara blushed slightly, “Oh now it’s my turn to blush. I know we just met like, not even yesterday but I knew walking up to you on Triton was a good idea.”

 

“Honestly, I thought it was going to be a prank or something the way your squad was watching us.”

 

“Nah those idiots follow me around like a pack of puppies, great people, but not the brightest,” she laughed, “Honestly, I don’t know how I’m gonna keep them entertained enough on this deployment to not tear this ship or each other apart. Getting away from them for this was a good idea, though. ”

 

Aspen tilted her head to the side, trying to think why Marines would go into a border patrol mission, “I mean, I’m sure they’ll find something for you all to do… And I’m glad we got some privacy, too. It’s nice to talk one on one like this.

 

Tara nodded, “I doubt we are the only ones who know about this spot, wonder if we’ll ever come down here and catch some folks snogging or something.”

 

“Snogging?”

 

“Oh, you know, making out, doin’ the deed, whatever.”

 

Aspen’s blush returned, “I hope not, that’d be super embarrassing.” 

 

Tara laughed, “For them, maybe!”

Aspen and Tara sat on the couch for another hour or so, trading stories of their time in bootcamp, and Tara recounting her previous deployments for Aspen, who listened raptly. Just as Aspen let out a wide yawn, a chiming sound echoed throughout the ship, and the captain’s voice sounded through the PA system, “Evening hours are about to begin. We will be departing the dock at o’ six hundred ship time.” 

 

As the captain’s voice faded away, the lights in the ship grew dimmer, eliciting another yawn from Aspen, “I think that’s my cue for bed.”

 

Tara stretched her arms over her head, and stood from the couch and popped her back, “Yeah me too, I haven’t slept since before Triton.”

 

Aspen stood as well and moved toward the ladder, “We should do this again, I liked talking with you.”

 

Tara smiled and nodded, “Me too.”

Aspen had a sudden idea, and her ears grew hot. Before she decided to think about it too much, she hurried over toward Tara and planted a peck on her cheek, and turned and scrambled up the ladder away, turning back to see Tara standing where she had left her, her hand to her cheek where she had kissed her with a big grin on her face.

 

Tara shouted after her as she disappeared through the ladderway, “I’ll message you!”

 

\\\

 

Aspen settled down in her room, her stomach aflutter and her ears still hot, the dumb grin she’d had on her face since she left Tara in the cargo office still on her face. The thoughts of her time with Tara spun in her head as she opened Dr. Holt’s protocol again, determined to study it until she fell asleep. Tomorrow was going to be busy.