Supernova (13 page)

Rian
rarely ventured out of military bases when he was on a station, and a quick
look around the barracks deck meant he was going to. He knew that the Solar
Flare and the Constellation were popular nightspots for Fleet officers, so he
took the lift up to the commercial sector. Immediately after stepping off, he
was hit with the noise and smells and crowds of Rubidge Station. There was the
usual assortment of station residents, tourists and military personnel, and he
took his time looking for the tall, blond ensign and redheaded nurse he knew
Lily was likely in the company of.

He
followed a group from another Fleet ship and stepped around throngs of people
staring in rapt fascination at a game of three-star monte being dealt by a man
wearing a ridiculous top hat. He ducked into the Constellation, a quieter pub
with a higher-priced menu that deterred junior officers, spotted a couple of
the admirals who had eviscerated him in conference, and left before anyone saw
him. The Solar Flare was a level down and his next guess.

There he
found what looked like half the
Defiant
’s crew, mingling with one
another in various states of inebriation. A lieutenant from navigation yelled a
hello from the patio and held up an empty beer glass. It was the warmest
greeting he’d received since taking command.

He
worked his way around a few tourists and potted palm trees until he was inside,
and he scanned the interior for Lily. His eyes adjusted to the dim light, and
he narrowly avoided being run over by a serving bot loaded down with drinks.
Ensign Shraft was at the bar, getting lectured by a woman covered with tattoos,
and he was nodding clumsily over his glass.

He saw
Lily at a table by the window, looking out at the corridor at an aggressive
perfume hawker. She didn’t notice him until he rested his hands on the chair
across from her, and she jumped a little. A smile bloomed across her face. “Hi,”
she said. “Sit down. Do you have time for a drink?”

He was
grateful for the invitation; it saved him the trouble of having to ask her if
the seat was taken without sounding like a fool. “Yeah,” he said. “Finally.” A
server made a beeline for their table to take his order. Coffee was at the tip
of his tongue, but he was in a pub, and he had had a trying day. “Kashaff
whiskey, please.”

“How did
everything go?” Lily asked when the server left.

“So-so,”
he admitted.
Horrible
, he thought. He had a feeling if he told her how
the meetings had gone she would listen, but he didn’t want to bore her. “Long
and short of it is, I’m still the acting captain, and the ship is getting some
repairs and upgrades while we’re here.”

She
nodded. “What kind of upgrades?”

“She’ll
be able to handle the newer torpedoes available, and the cannons will be
refurbished,” he replied, thankful for a topic he knew something about. “We had
adequate weaponry before, but this is what’s used on newer ships.”

The
server returned with his drink and asked Lily if she wanted a refill. She
declined and took a sip from her half-empty beer glass. Rian gave the server a
couple of credit pieces.

“Is that
what you’re used to back home?” he asked.

“Beer?
Yeah, we have that,” she said. “This is just a lot stronger than what I used to
drink. I won’t be able to finish a glass. Mora ordered it for me.”

“Where
did she take off to?”

Lily
shrugged. “I think she has a thing going with one of the guys here.” She
pointed to the bar, and he saw the nurse’s short cap of red hair. “She took me
shopping. It was quite the experience.” She grinned. “Better than back home.”

Rian
raised an eyebrow. “How so?”

Lily
told him about racks and described changing rooms and Mora’s reaction to how
things were done in her time, and Rian’s reaction was much the same. It was
horrifically unsanitary.

“I have
enough stuff to tide me over until I find my own place,” she finished after
giggling at the look on his face. “It’s nice to have something to wear besides
my work clothes. Dresses were never my thing.”

“No?”

“I grew
up on a farm, Rian. I spent my life in the dirt until I met my ex, then
returned to it until I moved to Toronto.”

An
ex. Interesting.
He had never got around to asking if she had a partner back home who would miss
her, and he was guessing now that she hadn’t. For some reason he was dying to
know about the ex, but forced himself not to pry. “The dirt? How so?”

A
faraway look crossed her face, and he wondered what she was remembering. “I was
an only child, and my dad was a single parent. We played ball hockey in the
driveway and climbed trees. Not the ones we sold for the holidays—they were too
small—but there were trees all around our property that had been there for
decades. So my clothes were always bound to end up stained or torn.”

“What
about your mother?” It was a more polite, professional question to ask instead
of one about an ex.

“She
died when I was a baby—a car accident. Um, land vehicle. Dad remarried when I
was four, and he and Sandy stayed together until I was in high school. She was
my mom, really, but she remarried before my dad died and we didn’t stay in
touch besides the occasional e-mail.” She looked at him curiously. “You know,
every time we talk, we discuss me. What about you?”

“I’m
pretty boring, Lily.”

“I want
to know, anyway,” she said. Warmth spread through him at her interest. “What
about your family and where you come from?”

“Career
Fleet,” he said. “Most Fleet kids grow up in boarding schools and I’m no
exception. I went into the academy at eighteen and I’ve been on a ship ever
since. Sixteen years.”

“But
where are you
from
?” she pressed.

“Repub-2,
a planet in the original Commons space. It was the second planet established as
a republic, but it joined the Commons when it was formed.”

She
leaned forward, resting her chin on her hand. “Brothers or sisters?”

“One
sister,” he said. “Nalia. She’s my twin.”

“That’s
so cool! She’s an officer, too, I take it?”

Nalia
was as spontaneous and carefree as Rian was quiet and disciplined. Their
parents had actually been relieved when the academy balked even at the mention
of her applying. “No, she’s a teacher at a primary school on Repub-2. She’s
married, with a two-year-old.” He missed her.

He also
envied her for her relationship with her husband, a ship mechanic. They had an
easygoing, loving relationship, the kind their parents didn’t appear to have
and Rian wished for in his weaker moments.

“So you’re
an uncle and a spaceship captain. What else do you do?”

“Being a
commanding officer takes up a lot of time.”

“You must
have hobbies and interests,” she insisted. “I used to read a lot. It’s harder
here, but I’m getting used to it.” She caught his raised eyebrow. “The language
has changed. ‘Y’ and ‘C’ aren’t used as much, unless they’re talking about the
Commons. My ID spells my name as L-I-L-I, for instance. So tell me, what do you
do?”

“I read,
too, but mostly military theory and history.” He thought of one of his pastimes
that he missed. “Climbing. And horror vids.”

“Movies?”
she translated.

“I don’t
know what they are,” he admitted.

“Shows,”
she explained. “You watch them on a screen.”

“Then
movies, yes.”

“Me,
too,” Lily said.

There
were cinemas on station, although none showing any decent vids, otherwise he
would have invited her to see one. Strictly to show her Commons culture, of
course.

There
was a small commotion at the bar as the blonde woman slid out of her seat next
to Shraft and left. He gave the noisy, dramatic sigh of the moderately drunk
and ordered another drink from a serving bot. Rian shook his head. “What’s
wrong?” Lily asked.

“I’m not
used to this kind of atmosphere,” he admitted.

“You’re
not a bar-hopper, then? Want to go somewhere?”

Rian
tore his gaze from the bar to look at Lily, slightly stunned. “Sure,” he said.
He thought quickly. “The station has an aviary, botanical gardens, a zoo. Where
do you want to go?”

“Wherever
you like,” she said, rising from her seat. “This is all new to me.”

* * *

Any
ideas in Lily’s mind about whether Rian was naturally quiet or if that was his
professional appearance evaporated. He was quiet, giving him a mysterious air
that she liked. She had asked an amused Mora back at the pub before his arrival
if he had any girlfriends, and Mora had giggled in reply. Like everyone in
Fleet, the nurse said, he had had a couple of discreet flings along the way but
nothing serious. “Do you have a thing for him?” she yelled over the roar of the
crowd.

Well,
yes, Lily did, but she wasn’t going to proclaim it in a noisy pub.

He was
intelligent, thoughtful, and, she was learning, irritating Fleet with his
unorthodox ways of leadership. He hadn’t spoken to her about it directly, but
she had sensed as much when she asked him how his conferences went, and guessed
that when the boss wanted to deal with him privately, it wasn’t to play golf
and talk shop. Still, he had made enough of an impact to be first officer on a
battleship by the time he was twenty-six, a feat even the most vocal detractors
on the
Defiant
admired.

And
he was good to look at. Lily
wasn’t about to discount that, or that she was a sucker for the tall, dark, and
handsome type. Deep blue eyes that had kept her focused and almost lucid when
she came out of stasis, and ink-black hair that he appeared to have forgotten
to have trimmed lately, but Lily liked it. It made him more human and less the
intimidating, distant captain. He was the polar opposite of Cameron, who could
draw a roomful of people around him just by walking in, and made friends
wherever he went. It was all an act, as Lily later found out when he told her
that he was really in love with her best friend.

She was
starting over. She wouldn’t think of that now. Cameron’s desertion had occurred
long before her move to Toronto and she had already put it behind her.

Rubidge
Station’s commercial sector was still busy even at this late hour, but the
attractions he brought her to were quieter. There was a large group of tourists
oohing and aahing over the aviary, a cavernous, sweet-smelling room full of
small colorful birds that resembled parrots. They flew through the room freely,
accepting pieces of fruit from onlookers’ hands. They were loud, too. Their
high-pitched screeches bounced off the walls as they dive-bombed heads. One
bounced off Rian and poked its beak at his neck, and he asked if they could go.

“Where
to next?” she asked. He rubbed his neck.

“We
could go to the botanical gardens,” he replied. “Or the library. As long as a
bird doesn’t try to kill me.”

“Let me
see.” She pushed his hand away and peered at his neck. There would be a small
bruise, but no lasting damage. “They’re not poisonous?”

“Not
that species.”

She
touched a fingertip to it to assess the damage and quickly drew away before
Rian could, remembering his reaction the other night in the mess. Rian turned
his head to look at her, one eyebrow raised in an expression that she was sure
he had a patent on. “The gardens,” she said.

Was that
disappointment on his face?

The
botanical gardens were two decks up from the aviary, and Lily had to remind
herself she was on a space station. There were more familiar plants here than
she expected, and a wave of homesickness washed over her, as strong as the
artificial sunlight pouring over the gardens.

“Rian,”
she breathed. “This is beautiful.” They wandered through a dirt pathway lined
with shrubs and flowers, plaques in front of them explaining their species and
origins. She pointed to a copse of trees in the distance, a few hundred feet
away. “Those are similar to what we grew at home.” She pointed to another,
closer group of trees. “Those are oak trees! But they’re small.” She wandered
over the grass to the oaks, full-grown but standing a scant nine or ten feet
up.

“Growth
hormones,” Rian explained, following her. “They do that to make room for more
species.”

Lily was
already reading a small plaque nailed into the tree trunk. It wasn’t identified
as an oak tree, but it originated from Repub-1, and before that, Earth. She
looked up at its branches and was pleased to see that they looked like they
could hold her weight. She’d certainly climbed higher trees, and this one had
some good footholds. “Will I end up in jail if I climb this?” she asked.

“No.
They frown on picking flowers, though.”

“Good to
know.” She wrapped her arms around the trunk and hoisted herself up.

“Lily,
haven’t you fallen out of trees before?” Rian asked patiently.

“I’ve
fallen out twice,” Lily retorted. “I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve
climbed them.”