Sweet Treats and Space Fleets

One - Ava

Shiny droplets of strawberry-flavoured cream drifted around the room like glistening bubbles blown through a soap-drenched hoop. I tried in earnest to lick the ice cream before it melted any further, cursing whoever had stuffed up the ship's code.

It was me, Ava.

Hi, I caused the problem.

Pink blobs splattered onto the walls and much to my dismay, the computer system I had been working on. This area of the ship was outside of the gravitational network because according to those at the top, areas that weren't used by multiple crew didn't deserve the power expense. Now, ice cream floated around my work area looking much like the stars beyond the giant window to my left.

One could probably blame me then for the ice-cream situation but I was putting blame firmly on management. Gravity could have prevented this entire thing.

Phoenix, a fellow engineer, was having his birthday party on Deck 15, beach-themed, and I had snuck an ice cream from the snack table right before I'd left to fix my mess. I was not supposed to eat in here but it had been years since I'd had an ice cream and look, I'm a sucker for the sweet treat. I had anticipated the thing melting - they had pumped up the ship's environment to emulate a summer's day on account of the party attire expected - but I had very good reasons as to why that wouldn't effect me. One, I had no gravity so most likely wouldn't have temperature control and two, I'd be able to devour the evidence before anyone noticed. Clearly, some higher power wanted to watch me squirm because neither was the case.

I did my best to shove as much of the thing in my mouth, bracing for the brain freeze of the century, whilst multi-tasking like a pro and doing an excellent breaststroke towards the wall. Gripping stuff as I floated along, it really was a majestic sight if I did say so myself, all those years of swimming lessons had certainly paid off.

I made quick work of the ice cream and every drop around the room, avoiding both the icy chill of a frozen brain and thankfully any mishaps that would have had my face flushed bright red and facing my superiors' disappointment.

My little sweet treat secret was safe.

Eyeing the last blob of ice cream near the window, I headed towards it, floating upside down, my tongue already hanging out of my mouth. My forehead thumped on the glass, my innate ability to protect myself nonexistent when ice cream was involved and I angled my head further down, closing my brown eyes and pressing my tongue to the thick glass.

Again, not the best look but it was not like I was in a car on a freeway. I was in space and the likelihood of someone seeing me looking like a dog licking a car window was extremely rare. I'm talking about seeing an octopus play chess was more common than what I was doing.

It tasted so good, strawberry creamy goodness.

A moan of appreciation escaped me and I opened my eyes only to have a heart attack. Again, another rarity, though seeing bright blue eyes watching me right now had also broken the statistical probabilities of the universe so apparently anything could happen.

I was frozen, heart pounding in my chest, tongue still pressed to the glass as I locked eyes with the man in the shuttle beyond the window. Even from a distance, I could see when he raised a dark brow, a smirk spreading on his face and I did what anyone would do in that situation... I raised a hand and waved.

I waved.

There had to be something seriously wrong with me.

His grin widened and his broad shoulders shook as he no doubt laughed at me, but of course, he wasn't entirely void of good manners so he waved back.

At this point, my brain began to function correctly and I remembered to tuck my tongue back into my mouth as I pushed off the glass and floated away from the window and the man beyond it. As I hurried towards the exit and away from my humiliation, eagerly grasping anything in reach to quicken my pace, questions filled my mind, because despite my behaviour I was not completely daft. I was an engineer working on a spaceship, after all, there had to be something going on in my head. Obviously not social etiquette or self-preservation or anything like that, but I was good at math, coding and problem-solving solving so I was not entirely hopeless.