Maysie's Galaxy ONC 2023

Killing Time

Maysie pushed thoughts the twins put in her head aside to finish the basic degree that proved she could apprentice in any field. They didn't forget her, occasionally trying to draw her into Longyearbyen's meager social scene, which meant the rare time she went to a house party, she had to drag Ethan's scowling face with her. His eyes only left her long enough to assess threats, and as oblivious as Maysie could be, it was sheer torment to be watched this carefully at a party.

She thought she understood it, though. Even on this Armpit of hell, she could be snatched and the world lost her mind. Maysie--to cope--drank far more than she should and Ethan often had to carry her home.

Maysie always woke up tightly tucked in, with a hangover. As she lay dying, she was grateful for the glass of water and tablets on her nightstand. Graduation was a small affair that was the basis of this last party, and she was surprised at the amount of relief she had over not being involved anymore with those she graduated with.

That's when she knew that her even hanging out with them was her trying to please Cleo and Ethan.   These guys weren't her idea of a good time, even if they were hot enough to make her mouth water, as Cleo put it. She just didn't have it on her to try something she wasn't somewhat serious about.

Which let her know that if she ever fell irrevocably for Talon, she'd live a life of celibacy just to never even meet him. Perhaps it was best if she didn't reach him at this point, as it gave her time to adjust to more than her childhood. These early adult years were a ton of work.

Maysie decided to get up and eat breakfast on a queasy stomach. She had to wonder why she built this damn contraption at all.

Cleo came out of her room humming happily. Ethan leaned against the door frame looking almost a decade older in his exhaustion.  As usual, he tightened his mouth when Maysie saw him.

That was starting to click into place for the young woman, as she realized he did this when he was feeling something that he didn't want to talk about. What it was, she didn't know, but she could see now that he had never been straightforward with her about anything personal until this point. Not that he wasn't an anchoring presence still, but the pain he hid showed he was a man and not just a shelter. A knot snarled its way through the miasma of her hangover with the realization that even if Ethan was willing, it was still wrong...right behind the crashing dread that she couldn't stop them from wrecking their lives as they saw fit.

Cleo hummed as she flipped through emails on her tablet--a dinosaur that was hard to replace without traveling to another nation altogether. "Oh, that nut wants us to meet in Florence at that old-fashioned speakeasy that trapped American built after the fall."

"How soon?" Ethan grumbled as he made his way to a seat across from the women.

"It's got an age limit of 21. The owner doesn't like having young adults in his bar."

"Well, we've got 4 months, if I go." Maysie frowned. 'Why don't you go without..."

"Not happening," Ethan quipped as he leaned back and crossed his arms. Now that Maysie noticed his subtle expressions, she couldn't unsee the twitch to his nose and the tick in his jaw. The whole package spoke of quiet rage. "I cannot be in two places at once and I can't think of anyone with the experience who is free to temporarily oversee this situation save the man Cleo broke and sent on my old route."

Cleo shrugged. "He proposed. I'd rather a man hate me than go through that again."

"Fuck it, I'm out." Maysie walked out and paced the halls, too upset to even understand grownups, even though the fact that she too was an adult kept hounding her denial.

Still, it wasn't enough to keep her away from hearing their continued fight.

"Could you not just air everything in front of her like that, Cleo?" Normally, Ethan fought to keep his voice from betraying his feelings--but he didn't care with her. "You're making yourself out to be the villain, instead of life being unfair."

"I'll keep her out of it when you keep your mouth shut," she hissed. "She wouldn't have caught that without your damn sob story."

"Cleo, you can't hide from this forever."

But it seemed like they would. Nothing more was brought up about the trip, and it was endless days of replacing inferior parts as they tested and retested the failure. It wasn't always the same doohicky--Maysie didn't have a clear name of what it was or fully what it did from Talon, just the specifics of the build and the overall effect. She'd have to study it further to fully grasp the details.

The number of times Cleo alone guessed what their principles were, and Maysie had to sit there and explain what she meant was embarrassing.

"They need to be smaller," Maysie grumbled. "I know their size is part of why they are breaking, but making them smaller is too delicate for the material."

"What about making them out of crystals?" Cleo asked. "There is a gem cutter in town."

"No, they crack along faults. I need  something like graphene or buckypaper, like your nanotube guy makes, if we are going crystalline."

But there was nothing to do but go round on the same things.

At least they were finding ways to minimize the damages to potential capsules as the field collapsed in various ways. They were now certain that they had enough failsafe to protect life if things went wrong.