Ezra's First

Part 10

He slowly climbed down the side of the ship and walked under the vessel and towards the cargo hatch. He meandered up the ramp and then sat down at the top of the ramp, knees in his arms. He briefly glanced at his wrist panel and could see that he had over an hour of oxygen left and so he could take his time now.

His mind replayed the last twenty odd hours. From the yelling match they had in the cockpit to hurtling through the atmosphere of this hellish planet. He felt deep shame for trying to hide away from the enemy and wondered if he had done enough to redeem himself, if Daniel still saw him as a coward, or what was it he called him? 'a self-righteous twink'.

He looked down the ramp and out into the valley they were nestled in. He felt alone and while he knew it was his fatigue and lack of sleep playing on his mind, he felt incredibly sad. He wanted to get home and alert everyone, he wanted to get him and Daniel home safely, he wanted the mission to be somewhat of a success as to rescue his career and his image. He did not like that Daniel saw that side of him and he feared what would be written in the after-action report.

His mind continuously looped over his tiredness, his shame, his fears, and the events of the missions until a finger tapped him on the shoulder.

"You should come back inside; you'll need to rest before we take off again." Daniel said.

"Good point, though we've got at least eighteen odd hours here, so you don't think you won't get decent rest either. This planet is obviously in the jump zone and is moving in the direction we need to go. Its better to ride the planet as far as we can to avoid detection incase they are lurking in system."

A helping hand appeared by his side and he took it as he realised how much his body had seized up and he was starting to feel where the bruises were.

He got halfway up before he needed to steady himself on Daniel's other arms, his legs felt like Jelly.

"You'll be taking first rest watch, Captain. That's an order." Daniel smiled at his own silly joke and Ezra remembered that Daniel had seen combat several times before. He knew exactly what it all felt like after the fact and he made the mental effort to let Daniel take the lead until for the interim future.

In fact, Daniel had already commanded the cargo ramp to close and was starting the process of re-pressurising the ship. The two stood there for a moment, Ezra still using Daniel to keep himself propped up, while they waited for the cabin to pressurise.

The panel on the wall, as well as the readouts on their wrist confirmed the cabin was pressurised and they both began removing their combat suits.

Ezra got his helmet and gloves off easily but began to struggle with his chest piece, he had sweated through his uniform on multiple occasions, and he felt like his chest piece was suctioned to his uniform. He had unzipped the sides but was unable to get his arms into a leverage point to peel the piece off.

"Word of advice." Daniel said, having already removed his entire combat suit which was crumpled in a pile at his feet.

"The trick is that it creates a vacuum with the bottom part of the suit, and so you need to apply pressure down there." He pointed to the seam around Ezras waist and Ezra went about trying to apply pressure with no luck.

"Like this." Daniel said as he stepped forward, placing his right hand on Ezras hip, his fingers slipping through the seam and under both the chest piece and his uniform. He felt his fingers touch his skin and Daniel slowly moved his hand around the seam, passing to the front of his stomach. Ezra tensed his abs in a subconscious response, and he felt a shiver wash over him as he registered another person's hand on skin. The suction effect of his chest piece gave way and Daniel with both hands pulled the chest piece over Ezras head. Ezras uniform top and singlet went with it and he was left standing there topless feeling vulnerable.