Page 179 of Every Almost

She didn't have a destination, but her feet took her to the central atrium, to the railing that overlooked the Aetherfin's zero-gravity sphere. She stopped, leaning against the railing, watching the creature's slow bioluminescent drift through weightlessness. To Charlie, as she stood there, she began to consider it something akin to a visual lullaby.

But Charlie stopped in her tracks when she noticed Reyna was already there.

Leaning against the railing and watching the Aetherfin trace patterns through the sphere, Reyna looked over when she heard Charlie's footsteps. Charlie watched as her face opened to a smile at seeing her behind her.

"Can't sleep?" Reyna asked.

"Apparently not," Charlie answered with a soft laugh. She hesitated at the edge of the atrium, suddenly aware that she'd walked here in bare feet and pajamas, not having thought about what she'd do if she ran into someone along her traverse through the ship.

However, she remembered the time she found Reyna in Borran's kitchen, the conversation the two of them had, with laughter and honesty and care. And then she specifically remembered a captain who'd saidI don't mind the company.

"You told me once," Charlie said, "that if I ever found you in a quiet space, I shouldn't feel the need to run away."

Reyna's expression softened. "I did say that."

"Well," Charlie gestured at the atrium, watching as the Aetherfin drifted through their sphere like a slow-motion dream. "I have now found you in a quiet space. But, fair warning, I did not bring a banana peel. However, I'm sure I can probably improvise."

The corner of Reyna's mouth lifted. "Well then I guess it's only fair that you join me," she said. "These improvisational skills need to be tested."

Charlie let out a soft laugh before joining her at the railing. She watched as the Aetherfin pulsed with the same slow blues and purples that then reflected off the sphere walls, painting the atrium in shifting, underwater light. She and Reyna stood in silence for a while, watching the creatures drift through the habitat. But the silence felt easy. Easy in a way that surprised Charlie. As if she were sitting in a comfortable silence between two people seeking the same thing.

"They are so beautiful," Charlie said eventually. "I know I've said that before. But every time I see the Aetherfins, it's like the first time. We have nothing like them on Earth."

Reyna smiled over at Charlie before turning her gaze back to the habitat. "The Aetherfin have that effect. Their bioluminescence actually shifts based on their emotional state. Oranges can mean aggravation, greens can be health related. But their blues and purples signify contentment." Reyna paused, looking over at Charlie, then back at the Aetherfin. "Now that we're talking about it, it seems they look bluer since you arrived."

"Since I arrived?"

"I mean, you talk to them, right?"

Charlie didn't move a muscle. "I do not talk to them," she said, but even she could hear the rise in her voice and the quick speed of delivery.

Reyna scoffed, but her eyes were soft. "Charlie, I have it on good authority from three separate crew members that you stand at this railing on your lunch breaks and narrate your engineering problems to creatures that cannot hear you through the sphere walls."

"First of all, it's therapeutic. Second, I'm not narrating, I'm thinking out loud. Third, how do you know it can't hear me? Maybe it finds my voice soothing."

"Soothing."

"Yeah, maybe I calmthemdown, help them work throughtheirproblems with my James Earl Jones narration instrument."

"What is 'James Earl Jones?'"

"Oh for the love of —"

"You know what?" Reyna interrupted, her laughter spreading through the atrium and catching Charlie square in the chest. "I stand corrected. Perhaps you don't talk to the Aetherfin and use them to work through your engineering troubles. Perhaps it's all just a ruse against the Earthling."

Charlie leaned her head back and took a deep breath.

"So maybe I talk to them," Charlie muttered, quiet and quick that she purposefully slurred her words. Her head shot back up. "But, hey, I stand by that it could possibly hear me and find my voice soothing."

Charlie stared at Reyna with an expression that resembled an invitation to an argument. But she felt her own expression shift as Reyna's went soft.

"Maybe it does."

The way Reyna said it made Charlie's breathing stagger, just slightly.

"What about you?" Charlie asked, redirecting before anything could betray her. "Do you find yourself here a lot?"

"I usually come here when I can't sleep. Which, if I'm being honest, is more often than a captain should probably admit."