AllFreeNovel
Share Us
6
"I thoughtI might f-find you here." Danec offered me a shy smile, which I replied to with one of my own.
"I can't resist the last view of Earth before we're too far away to see it." I gestured for him to sit beside me and scooted over on the bench to make room.
"It's a bittersweet sight," he said. "I'll miss the…the ducks."
For a moment I thought I'd misheard. "Ducks?" I asked.
"Yes, ducks. They're my favourite Earth animal, apart from humans. I like their quack and the paddle of their feet under water." He mimed the action with his hands.
I smiled. "They are pretty cute. People used to eat them once." I regretted my words when his face fell. "They don't anymore," I added quickly. "At least as far as I know." I decided against telling him what humans did to chickens.
"Oh, great." He sat sideways and rested his elbow on the back of the bench. "I'm sorry about last night. I came back to look for you, but I couldn't find you. And then, well, Commander J'avet saw me and ordered me to turn in for the night." Danec looked rueful. "I don't think he likes me."
"From what I've seen of him, he doesn't like much of anyone." I swivelled to face Danec and tucked one foot behind the other. "It probably didn't help that we didn't move fast enough during the drill." I half expected to hear the alarm sound the moment the words left my lips, but it didn't.
"Yeah, I guess so." He glanced down at his lap. "Have you seen the, um, recreation centre?"
From the way he spoke, I wondered what kind of recreation he was referring to, but I decided he meant the innocent kind.
"I haven't. Is it… nice?" Really? Nice? Was that the best word I could come up with? I wanted to sink into the bench, but I smiled instead and tried to look as though I didn't feel like an idiot.
Danec nodded. If he thought anything was off, he gave no sign. "It's g-great."
I noticed he used that word a lot. He must have noticed it too, because now he looked embarrassed.
"Can I show it to you?"
If someone like Slek had asked, he would have meant something else entirely, but Danec was different. Sweeter. I didn't mind flirting, of course, but it was nice to have a friend on board. Two friends, but I hadn't seen Brinley since we boarded. I suspected her days would be spent on the bridge, or flying one of the small pods which belonged to the ship.
"I'd like that," I said.
"Great," he said. His eyes widened. "I mean good. I mean—" He stopped. "Unless you'd prefer to stay longer?" He nodded toward the window.
I exhaled through my nose. "I'll see it again some day." There wasn't much point in spending the rest of the day with my nose pressed against the glass, watching Earth become a dot in the rearview mirror, so to speak.
"I'm sure you will," he assured me, then smiled softly. "So will I."
"You're thinking of the ducks, aren't you?" I asked, half teasing.
He looked sheepish. "Yes. they remind me of the dorva bird from back home."
"Do they have paddling feet too?" I mimed the action.
"They do," he confirmed, "but they honk, rather than quack, and they have teeth." He bared his.
I grimaced. "They sound…adorable."
He chuckled. "They're mostly harmless. Unless you go too close to their burrows."
"I'll remember that if I ever visit Frey-T," I assured him. "Now, you were going to show me the rec room?"
"Right, yes," he said quickly. He rose and stepped away from the bench to let me out. "I'm sorry, I can't pull the chair out this time."
I laughed, because as far as I could tell, every bit of furniture was bolted to the deck.
"Not without getting into trouble anyway. You don't want to get thrown out the airlock."
