What Dreams May Come

Chapter 19: bro talks

Levi walked behind Lully uncertain what to expect. The other man was so much taller than him, and Levi was reasonably certain that he was younger, not older than Levi.

"So do you work with the designs much at the printers?" Levi asked.

Lully glanced down at him with a little surprise. "A little," he said. "No one really trusts me with the design work because I tend to, um, experiment with aesthetic. The base is very practical; you've probably noticed."

"I have," Levi agreed. "Walsh said as much not an hour after I woke."

Lully grimaced. "That man takes practicality full circle. He's so focused on getting the atmosphere up to standards he forgets about the people who are breathing it. It has messed Dylan up pretty bad to have such a papa. I still can't believe she works under him."

"I think she wants what is best for the base," Levi offered.

"Maybe. My advice? Don't work in environment. They have the worst hours by far. The pay isn't bad, but definitely not worth the panic during every single earthstorm. I'd have gray hair by now if I was Dylan." He reflected. "Maybe that's why she keeps it in a cap."

The door slid open and they were back in the old comm bay. The device with the CDs had ejected them all and the holo-rib was blinking steadily. Levi rummaged through Dylan's bag to find the appropriate cases.

"I was going to talk to you about Dylan, but after our command center adventures, what does it matter if you two are fighting?" Lully sighed. "We're all in so much trouble. We can't tell anyone and we can't not tell anyone." He leaned against a wall, fiddling with the hem of his shirt. "The whole base is going to be tidal."

"I'll talk to Dylan," Levi said, ignoring the larger problem at hand. "I.... Last night I realized how much I had flippantly given up. I hadn't said goodbye to my parents, my friends. I'm an emotional mess. Dylan is emotionally detached. It wasn't a good combination last night."

"She's not detached," Lully countered. "Any more than I am or Alcott is. We spend our whole lives having the important choices made for us; I think it's hard to work up emotion for something that seems inevitable."

Levi finished replacing his CDs and added the remaining to the machine before turning it back on. They listened to the whirl of the CD player in silence. Levi wondered what would happen when they got back to the base.

"What kind of trouble are we in?" Levi finally asked.

"Eh, for sneaking out? No more than I am in usually. So long as no one gets sent to look for us, we'll get slapped with community service and we move on with our lives. If they send the hover for us, we'll have to meet with O'Keefe and that will put us on probation and a much larger community service fine. If we don't get back before the storm resumes, we might as well stay and die in here. I'm not particularly looking for that kind of trouble."

"Not really," Levi agreed. "Why are we here?"

"Dylan wanted you to find some closure. She thought you'd find it here, apparently."

Lully gestured around to the gutted ship. "Is this what you needed?"

Levi had spent hundreds of hours in the comm bay of the Aeneid and even he was having difficulty recognizing the room they were in. The ship was in such a state, not that he blamed anyone, but it did make the century he'd been gone very apparent.

"It must have been hard," Levi remarked. "Taking apart our home to build a new one. There was no going back once we landed."

"I imagine so," Lully agreed. "I wouldn't know first hand; I was the first born on the planet. My madre likes to say that I was late so I could claim the title. You dodged my question though."

"What?"

He laughed. "You're just as bad as Dylan. Is being back on the Aeneid doing you any good?"

Levi sighed and checked the CDs progress before answering. Lully watched him with some amusement.

"What's it to you?" Levi asked.

"Because Dylan is a good friend of mine, and she was really upset yesterday."

Levi grimaced, knowing that it was his fault as well. He couldn't believe that he had yelled at her, like she had been the one who killed his parents. She had fled, and he had fallen asleep, and they hadn't talked about it since.

"I needed this," Levi said finally. "I needed to see that my home isn't in the stars and my new place is here on the ground."

Lully nodded. "Welcome to the ground."

He moved to clap Levi on the back. Levi sputtered once and punched Lully in the arm. Lully raised his arm to slug him back, but then paused.

"Fighting already?" Alcott and Dylan appeared at the door. "Boys, seriously."

"It's not fighting, it's camaraderie," Lully complained. "We're bonding. What were you ladies up to?"

"Puzzles," Dylan answered and then pointed at the machine behind Levi. "Discs are done; we really should get out of here; Alcott and you have work, and my papa is going to kill us if we delay much longer."

It didn't take long to get the discs back in Dylan's bag. She unplugged Levi's holo-rib and handed it to him and the quartet moved back through the ship and out into the world. It was lighter, but the sky was clouding over and the wind was picking up. Dust made it difficult to see, but there were lights from the base in the distance.

"We need to hurry!" Lully called. "Stay close!"

Levi glanced once more at the sky, and was surprised to feel Dylan take his hand, pulling him along.

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Storm's coming. 

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