Page 209 of Every Almost

"What do we have to add today?" Orion asked from his desk as Charlie sat down across from him.

"To be honest, I'm not sure." Charlie pulled out her datapad, finding the music player and opening up the list she'd been adding to the past few days. While he settled in across from her, she began to play him something. As they made their way through her playlist, he'd ask what it meant and she'd try to explain what a saxophone solo was for or why a whole generation had agreed a particular drum machine sounded like the future.

Orion tilted his head at the sound. "The rhythm in this one. It's very precise. More precise than the others."

"Yeah, that's probably because it's not a person behind the beat," Charlie said, sitting forward. "That's what's called a drum machine. It's a box that makes drum sounds for you. You program the pattern and it plays it back exactly the same every time. No drift, no fatigue, no drummer getting tired in the fourth hour of a session."

"A machine that performs the music," Orion said, obviously intrigued.

"Part of it, yeah. And people hated it at first. Drummers especially," Charlie said with a laugh. "Which I can understand. But there was a whole panic that it'd put musicians out of work, that music made by a machine would come out soulless and mechanical." She pulled up another track. "Some labels ended up putting stickers on the album saying, 'Featuring no drum machine,' almost like a warning."

"And were they correct?" Orion asked. "Did it put musicians out of work on Earth?"

"No," Charlie said, a real smile gracing her lips. "That's the good part. People ended up taking this machine that was supposed to replace music and instead made new music out of it. Whole kinds of new music that couldn't have existed before thismachine, built on that steady pulse on purpose, because it did things a pair of hands never could. The tool everyone thought was the end of it opened a door nobody knew was there."

"So, the fear was misplaced," Orion commented with a smile.

"Isn't fear always a little misplaced?" Charlie asked.

Orion smiled at her. "I suppose it is."

Charlie cued the next song before the last one even finished. "In this case, people saw a new tool and decided it was going to take the art and beauty and soul of music away. But what it did was bring about a way for those without money or instruments a way to make their own music. It changed what music could be."

Orion made a note before asking her to play the next one. As they listened to the next song and the next song, Charlie felt Orion's eyes on her. She looked up at him after playing the most recent song she'd added to her datapad.

"You have been adding to this," Orion observed, scrolling. "More often lately."

Charlie considered his words, thinking back on what had occurred recently. "It was a time for it, I guess." She kept her voice level. "Music's good for... eventful times."

"Mm," Orion hummed, examining her list a moment longer than the comment warranted. "Is there something that connects them? These ones you added? The ones you've returned to?"

Something in the question snagged at Charlie, just for a second. She kept her eyes on the datapad, scrolling, looking through the rest of the songs.

"They just say things I can't always say myself," she said. "For me, that's the whole point of a good song. It communicates for you what you didn't have words for just moments ago, getting there before you do. It helps saves the trouble of finding the words."

Orion put down his pen, looking over at Charlie. She felt his eyes on her, and looked up into his gaze. His smile was warm, gentle, soft and connected. "The songs speak for you."

Charlie smiled, appreciating Orion's consensus. He got it, and that made a bigger difference than she thought it would.

"Yeah, they do. Sometimes, at least. My dad, Frank, used to say a song could do what words couldn't." She lowered her eyes back to the datapad and smiled a little. "The moment he told me that, I've spent my life learning he wasn't wrong."

She cued the next track and let it play. She let Orion hear the songs she'd reached for this past week, songs she'd added without looking for any connection that ran through them.

Charlie's eyes brightened when the next song began. "Okay, so this one I added after our second Earth Night," she said. "Remember how the whole crew turned out, people even staying late and asking when the next one would be?" Orion nodded at Charlie's words. "And even Reyna showed that time, after having missed the first one." Charlie smiled to herself now as she remembered the way Reyna had responded to the Earth Night gathering. "She called it incredible, even."

"She told me the same," Orion remarked. Charlie smiled and looked back at her datapad, continuing to scroll, her smile still in place. "Yeah. So, there's that one."

Orion made a note in his journal. As he watched Charlie scroll, he pointed his finger at one song on the list. "And this one?"

"Oh," Charlie said, a soft laugh on her lips. "I couldn't sleep one night. So, I decided to walk the ship and ended up watching the Aetherfin drift around their sphere for at least an hour or so." As the song continued to play, Charlie felt a smile on her lips again. "Turns out, I wasn't the only one up." Charlie looked up at Orion, her smile still firmly in place. "I added this song after I returned to my quarters."

"Hmm," Orion remarked.

Charlie moved on. "This one here was just from a clean repair in one of the habitats. Sometimes, when a fix goes right, you want to mark it."

"A success is worth noting," Orion commented, making Charlie smile.

"Exactly."