He made sure the hatch was closed and put on his harness, securing himself tightly into place. It was not that he did not trust her piloting abilities, it was just that he knew her style to be quite sporty and maybe a little rough around the edges. While he did this she had gone through the pre-flight check-list and was about to power up the generator.
Contrary to the vehicles she could operate on her class one licence, this vessel came with it's own on-board fusion generator and therefore packed a lot more punch when it came to acceleration, top speed and range. She was obviously very excited and he had to remind her to remain calm as her finger hovered above the button that would prime the ion drive. Finally, she pressed the button. And nothing happened.
She pressed it again. This time her head-up display flashed red and a high-pitched beeping filled the cockpit. "Aw come on!" she yelled at the Universe in general, "what's wrong now!?"
Being much more familiar with this type of craft, he looked around and spotted the culprit after a few moments.
"Look here babes, you forgot to disconnect the umbilical," he pointed out, referring to the strand of cables and hoses that connected the vessel to the machinery allowing it to be powered up in the first place.
She quickly corrected her mistake and pressed the engine primer again. This time the cockpit was filled by a soft humming that gently became louder until it stabilised and soon became part of the regular background noise. She turned to him, looking him sternly in the eyes and said, "don't you dare make fun of me because of this."
He replied, layering his voice with as much sarcasm as possible, "I will never bring it up, ever."
She hit him on the shoulder for this comment before grasping her controls firmly with both hands and initiating the launch sequence. Moments later, the craft was expelled out of the dome through a tunnel containing a launch rail that propelled them towards the grey and rocky landscape that waited for them outside their dome.
She was enjoying herself, racing across the rugged scenery, a mere dozen metres above the ground. Meanwhile, he held on to the edge of his seat, wondering if this would be his last birthday, as the rocks and boulders that were strewn across the landscape kept zooming passed them.
"You know you are no longer restricted to flying below thirty metres with this thing," He said.
"Oh right! My instructor kept having to remind me about that!" she replied, laughing, and increased their altitude until almost reaching the lower limit of the restricted zone, beginning at 5000 metres.
"Better?" she asked while busying herself with the navigation display.
"Much better," he replied, "where are we going exactly?"
"It's a surprise," she stated with a tone making further enquiry redundant.
She kept quiet for most of the trip from that point onwards, focusing on finding the right way and thinking about her life so far. What had started out as a romance that spanned multiple light-years had become a lot more serious when he had asked her to move back to Earth with him. He was a young officer of the fleet and she was a recent graduate with honours of the exosociology course at the university of Kallaloo, one of Earth's more diverse colonies.
She had not had the chance to visit humanity's homeworld prior to their meeting and she had always dreamed of doing so. Naturally the thought of actually living there had overwhelmed her and after what many had noted to not be enough consideration she had agreed. She did not move all in one go however. Immigration rules for colonists were relatively strict and they had been required to be together a certain amount of time before she could even be considered for a visa.
Whenever he was not away on a mission she had come to stay with him on Earth so she could get used to life there as well as start looking for jobs in her field. After living together on and off for a few years and staying in contact as well as they were able, given the distance separating them, she was finally granted residence in the Sol system.
Shortly after moving in with him however he was reassigned temporarily to one of the research outposts on the moon and though she would be allowed to share his living quarters it would turn out to be quite the step down from the possibilities she would have had on Earth. His assignment had been extended twice already and she could feel the drag of the isolation she experienced on the moon. People in their settlement kept mostly to themselves and were not very communicative, while she wanted to be out and about and see the world.
"But we love each other and we'll work through this," she thought to herself. It was not as if she lacked in anything. All the essentials were more than covered. It was just that she had expected to be somewhere else, living a different life than this. She sighed as she shook these thoughts from her mind and re-focused on the surprise she had planned for him.
"Don't worry babe, we won't be stuck on the moon forever," he said.
"Damn it! He caught me!" she thought. Out loud she said, "stop reading my mind! I'm sure I wasn't being obvious about it."
"You don't have to be. We're connected you and I. I know how you feel and when you feel it," he said and left it at that. If she wanted to talk about it, she would in due time. He knew that she tended to keep things bottled up inside of her but never for too long. She would open up eventually when she needed emotional release. And he would be there for her, as he had been since they became a "thing".
Instead of talking however she increased the reactor's power output and accelerated even further before putting the craft into a gentle descent towards the mountain range that had appeared on the horizon. She had been researching the best spots from where to witness the awe-inspiring view that was the half-risen Earth above the horizon. She was confident that she had found the most spectacular point within reach and that's where they were headed now.
"Well my surprise for you is out the airlock," he said, resignation in his voice.
"How so?" she asked.
"I was planning to carry you to the mountains for a romantic picnic-dinner tonight," he explained, followed by a deep sigh, "but it appears that you've been reading my mind just how I've been reading yours."
"Aw that is so sweet," she said in her most adorable voice, "don't worry, I'm sure you'll have plenty more occasion to surprise me with romantic things."
"I know. But apparently not on Valentine's Day," he said, sounding defeated.
"I don't know why you hang on to that archaic practise anyway," she lectured him, "I had not even heard of it before visiting Earth."
"I know babe. I'm not into the whole commercial side anyway. I just like the excuse to be extra romantic with you," he explained.
"You don't need a specific day for that though, you can be extra romantic any day you feel like it."
"You're right as always," he agreed.
"You know babe... Always..." she began before he interrupted her by finishing her sentence in a singsong voice, "listen to her."
They sat next to each other, silently thinking about how well they worked together, both of them smiling.
It was not much later when the marker she had programmed appeared on her nav-screen and she began to slow down. Not as used to this type of craft as she would have liked to be, she misjudged the decelerating capabilities of it's manoeuvring thrusters and overshot her marker, which deleted itself as they passed it. She ended up having to avoid a mountain by going around it and by doing so lost track of her location. Frustrated, she brought the hopper to a halt and settled down on as flat a surface as she could find, out of sight of any signs of human presence.
"Don't get upset babe," he pre-emptively calmed her down, "your flying is great and this is as good a spot as any."
"But I had a specific spot in mind that I wanted us to be at!" she cried out, looking and sounding devastated.
He did the only thing there was to do, knowing that words would not be able to calm her and wrapped his arms around her. He could feel her breathing heavily as she buried her face in his shoulder. After a moment, realising that the worst had passed, he started pulling on one of her thick curls gently in a playful way. She immediately started laughing.
He let go of her and before she returned to hear seat completely their lips met briefly for a kiss that felt soothing to them both.
She looked him deep in the eyes before asking, "so... how would you feel about some food?"
He laughed, giving is usual answer, "you know me... I could eat. I can always eat."
"Indeed you can," she confirmed his statement, before adding, "go in the rear compartment and see what you find there."
He did as he was told and she heard him exclaim in surprise, "wow, babe... how did you pull this off?" She had put a lot of effort into organising this trip and was glad that he seemed genuinely happy about it. She had managed to prepare this entire meal the day before and store it in the hopper without him being aware of it. There were her delicious self-made burgers of which she was very proud, a decent amount of thickly cut oven-potatoes and she had attempted to fry some molten cheese, which was more a treat for herself if she was being completely honest.
She folded the third seat together so that they could use it as a makeshift table and enjoyed their lunch together. It was not the perfectly romantic setting she had hope for, but seeing him enjoy her food more than made up for it. She would have loved some wine with that or maybe even a nice cocktail, but alcohol was scarce outside of the moon's capital and she had not had the chance to go there recently.
He chewed his way with much enthusiasm through the burger she had lovingly prepared for him and she could hear how much he enjoyed it by the occasional sigh of pleasure. "He enjoys food almost as much as he enjoys me," she thought, the hint of a grin on her face. It was not that they were starving the rest of the time, but truly delicious meals were unfortunately not a daily occurrence. Another drawback of life in a small lunar settlement.
She was enjoying their meal together so much that she had already forgotten the mishap on the way there. Once the meal was done however, she had to face the fact that they were lost somewhere in the mountains, a few hours away from their settlement. The navigation computer resisted every attempt of being reprogrammed and after much desperation he finally convinced her that they would have to call it in.
Not wanting her to be embarrassed about her first longer flight on the moon he adorned the headset and established communications on the emergency comm-link, explaining their situation and the malfunction of their nav-system that had lead to it. The officer who took the call was an acquaintance of his and he was sure that the story of him stranded in the mountains would have spread within the fleet by the time he began his next shift.
"The things you do for the one you love," he thought, knowing she was totally worth it.
"Help is on it's way," he told her once the communication was over, "they are going to send a spare maintenance drone as soon as one is available and we'll follow it home."
"Good. I'm sorry the day ended like this," she said.
"Don't be," he replied, "you have nothing to be sorry for. It's been a great day, babe."
"So... how long until we're rescued?" she asked, sounding mischievous.
"Not sure, couple of hours at least I'd say," he replied.
"In that case, I believe it's time for your dessert," she told him, leaning in for a long and intense kiss.
She then leaned back in her seat and began opening the magnetic fastener that held her jumpsuit together. They had finally reached the part that they've both been looking forward to the most: getting to enjoy each other.
Author's Notes
And this is part 2... I hope you enjoyed the story.
This was the first in a series of unrelated short stories.
Your votes and feedback will be much appreciated!