by Kal Spriggs
Eric gave both of them a nod and then continued with his conversation with Rastar, “So as I see it, really, the Mod Twelve is the best design. It incorporates more capabilities and situational awareness, you literally can’t miss—”
“My god, is everyone talking about how I missed Elena and Crowe?!” Ariadne snapped. “I messed up, I’m sorry, okay?” She heard her voice climb at the end and realized that she’d let her temper fray dangerously. As if on cue, she smelled burning hair.
“What?” Eric asked. His voice was filled with confusion. “I was just talking about sniper scopes…”
The lift doors opened and Ariadne stormed past him. Her eyes filled with tears and she barely heard Rastar’s confused voice behind her, “I guess she’s not a fan of Centauri Arms either, Eric.”
“Ariadne, wait,” Simon said. She glanced over her shoulder to see him try to push through Eric and Rastar, but the doors closed before he could.
“Ariadne, are you okay?” a voice asked from nearby.
She turned and found Mandy and Miranda. The two women had just come out of the crew quarters. “I’m fine,” Ariadne said. She took a deep breath, and forced her anger aside, “Just a little stressed, but thank you for asking.”
Mandy opened her mouth, a look of confusion on her face, but Miranda nudged her, “Right, well, if you want to talk, you know where to find us.” The slight smirk on her face forced Ariadne to step on her anger again. “We’ll be up on the bridge, not long until we get to 567X43, right?”
Her anger drained away like the water from Rainbow’s tank. “Right, not long at all now,” Ariadne said, and managed to return something like a smile. No wonder they were happy. The entire ship was happy. The system they would reach, 567X43, was practically civilized space. She’d even managed to cut a few days off the travel time so they would arrive earlier than expected. In all likelihood their isolation and exile was finally at an end.
I must be the only one aboard who feels this alone, she thought. But how was that new? She had been alone since Victor betrayed her, an orphan, adrift. Why would coming back to human space change any of that for her? “Well, I’ll see you later, I just remembered I needed to check something up forward,” Ariadne said. She turned away from them and strode off. She needed time to collect herself, to focus, and to get her emotions under control.
She strode the mostly-empty corridors and slowly picked away at her emotions. She had to get to the root of what bothered her, she knew. It was a combination of Mike’s instruction and everyone else’s perception of her as a failure, she thought. She had failed, she should have spotted Crowe’s behavior, should have been more suspicious of Elena. For that matter, she should keep a sharper eye on all the crew, she knew.
A hatch opened to her left and Pixel stepped out. “Hey, Ariadne,” Pixel said, “You looking for me?” He had smudges of dirt and grease on his face and he wiped his hands with a dirty rag before stuffing it into a pocket.
Ariadne gave him a polite smile, “No, just doing the rounds. We’ll be emerging in 567X43 in just a little while, I’m just letting everyone know.”
“Yeah, that’s good to know,” Pixel said. “I just finished calibrating the sensors. Simon said he was getting an odd flicker when he rand diagnostics, so that should be fixed, if you could let him and Mike know.”
“Yeah, sure,” Ariadne said weakly. The last person she wanted to talk to was Simon.
“Oh and I think I saw Run up forward a bit,” Pixel yawned. “I think I’m actually going to go get some sleep. See you later, Ariadne.”
She gave him a wave and continued down the corridor. She continued to pick at the complex tangle of her emotions. Pixel at least, didn’t show any signs that he didn’t trust her. For that matter, Eric and Rastar hadn’t, she realized. So why did she feel the crew hated her?
Not the crew, she realized, just one person… Simon. Ariadne reached the end of the corridor and toggled open the hatch. She didn’t close it behind her as she stepped into the dark storage space. She leaned against the cool metal bulkhead and struggled through her emotions. Ariadne felt like she’d let the crew down, true enough, but none of them seemed too angry about it, no one besides Simon. Simon had avoided her since he revealed the wanted notices he found on Crowe’s computer. Simon had fairly blazed with frustration and irritation when she ran into him. Simon was the one person who she wanted to like her, to respect her.
As if on cue, a figure stood silhouetted in the open hatch. “Ariadne?” Simon asked.
Why couldn’t she get away from him? “What?” She asked, her voice flat.
She heard him sigh, “Look, Ariadne, I need to talk to you. Pixel said he saw you headed down this way, so…”
“Oh, he says he re-calibrated the forward sensors,” Ariadne said woodenly. She gave him the obvious out to avoid the coming confrontation. Of course, she didn’t need to be a psychic to know he wouldn’t take it, not after following her the length of the ship.
“Yes, he told me that as well,” Simon said. “But, look, I’ve needed to say this for the past week. I don’t know how you’re going to react to it, so I’m just going to talk, okay?”
“Go ahead,” Ariadne said and choked down her own emotions.
“Look, Ariadne,” Simon sighed. “I know that you must be angry with me, about what I accused you of on the bridge. I know we’ve all been under a lot of stress.” He paused and Ariadne braced herself for his next words. “So… I want to apologize,” Simon said, his voice level.
“What?” Ariadne asked in surprise.
“It was rude of me to drag everyone’s pasts up in that fashion. I need to apologize to everyone, really, but I wanted to apologize to you first,” Simon let out a deep breath and then snorted, “You haven’t made this easy, you know?”
“Me?” Ariadne demanded. “You are the one walking around as a tangled ball of negative emotions and avoiding me for the last week. I thought you were angry with me.” She felt a surge of irritation. What was it with men?
Simon looked surprised, “Oh. Honestly, I just figured you knew what I wanted to say and you were making me sweat.” He took a deep breath, “Then again, you’ve respected our mental privacy, so I shouldn’t have made that assumption.” Simon snorted, “Well, now I doubly feel like an idiot.”
Ariadne felt her irritation drain away. “You aren’t an idiot,” she said.
“Well, anyway, I wanted to apologize,” Simon said, and his chocolate brown eyes met her gaze levelly. “Because you have been honest with me from the beginning and because I should have trusted you. And part of the reason I’ve found it so hard to apologize is… well, I respect you. More than that… I really care what you think about me.”
“You do?” Ariadne felt a loose, fluttery feeling in her stomach.
“Yeah,” Simon looked away and in the dim lighting of the compartment, she could barely see the flush climb his cheeks. “I’d say it was friendship, but it’s something more than that for me.” He paused and she could see him fumble for words. He stepped closer, within arms reach, and he spoke softly and slowly, “I’m interested in you, Ariadne, and I wanted to see if you feel the same.”
“Oh,” Ariadne said. She felt completely blindsided. “Here, I thought you hated me…” She let out a snort of laughter herself. “Well, now I feel like an idiot.”
“So is that a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’ or something else altogether?” Simon asked.
“That’s a ‘let’s get to know one another better and see where it goes,’” Ariadne answered. “But, there is one thing I want to do…” She leaned forward. Her lips found his just as the ship made its transition from shadow space. The world seemed to lurch for a moment and both of them stumbled back.
The intercom crackled to life. “All crew report to the bridge,” Mike said.
Ariadne saw a look of frustration flash across Simon’s face. “That’s terrible timing,” he said.
“The worst,” Ariadne said, just before alarms began to wail.
* * *
The End
* * *
The Renegades continues with Renegades: Out of the Cold
