14. The Aetherfin Undertaking #2
And the shuttle took off from the bay, the engines rumbling underneath Charlie's feet, the entire shuttle vibrating as it streaked out into open space through the Emberkind's bay doors, at a speed Charlie was sure Earth had only dreamed about.
But she didn't worry, or flinch, or even feel scared anymore. Because the warm hand holding hers that belonged to a captain she was realizing cared more about others than she let on, was keeping her steady and safe and... okay.
Hours into the shuttle trip, Charlie sat in her jump seat, watching the crew move around her. Reyna had returned to her duties working with Torvax and the pilot in front, monitoring their progress as well as reports from the Coalition as they came in.
She had sat with Charlie for the first twenty minutes of the trip and held her hand the entire time. When she finally did unbuckle her harness and unseat herself from the jump chair next to Charlie, she gave Charlie's hand one final squeeze.
"No more destroying my shuttle, yeah?" She asked, unlinking her fingers from Charlie's. Charlie didn't want to admit that she felt the immediate absence of her, but she figured it was because Charlie had been kind of treating Reyna as a lifeline and now, that lifeline had to go and do her job.
"Yeah," Charlie replied.
"Yeah?" Reyna asked, shocked amusement on her face.
"I mean no!" Charlie retorted, realizing her mistake. "No, I won't destroy your shuttle any further, captain." Reyna studied her closely, a smirk catching on her face.
"Good. See it stays that way."
And then she walked away.
That had been about two hours ago. Charlie was doing fine on the trip now (she'd have to tell Reyna later that it was better than flying by airplane on Earth) and had even pulled out her Walkman from the pack she brought with her, listening to Katie's mixtape from 1984, the year they'd discovered Led Zeppelin, Wang Chung's newest album release, and the incredible work of Bruce Springsteen's Born in the USA.
She'd settled into her groove with one of the pieces of Katie she still had connection to, and let the voices and instruments keep her calm.
That was, until Tavi dropped into the seat beside her and immediately noticed the Walkman clipped to her belt.
"That thing," he said, pointing at it. "What is it doing right now?"
Charlie pressed pause on the top before refocusing on Tavi. "Sorry, Tav - what did you say?"
Tavi looked down at the Walkman again. "What is that? Especially since it makes it so you can't hear me, and it makes you call me 'Tav.'"
Charlie grimaced. "Sorry, Tavi. It just kind of slipped out?"
"Nah, you know?" Tavi reconciled. "I actually kind of like it."
"Really?"
"Yeah," he responded genuinely. "But now that means I get to find a nickname for you."
Charlie laughed. "That seems fair."
"I promise I won't make it too inappropriate."
"Okay, now I think the fairness is unbalanced."
"You'll love it." Charlie laughed again before Tavi continued. "But seriously, what is that? What is it doing?"
"Playing music."
Tavi balked at her. "Playing music? Right now? While it's just sitting there?"
Charlie grinned at him. His engineer brain was working to understand this new machine and figure out how anything could be kept within a tiny little box.
She opened the Walkman cassette holder, and held it out to Tavi.
"You see this thin piece of tape held here?
" She pointed at the exposed bit of tape on the top of the cassette.
"When it's running, it's playing. The music is playing.
And see these wheels?" Charlie turned the cassette up in her palm.
"Here in the middle? That's where the cassette uses motors from this machine to turn those wheels and advance that thin piece of tape.
The tape itself has music recorded on it magnetically, and this machine reads the magnetic signal while turning the wheels, then converts it into sound through these. " She held up the headphone cord.
Tavi's eyes were wide. His hands were already reaching. "That is magnificent. It's completely analog?"
"Completely."
"No digital conversion? No data compression? It's just... magnetic patterns on a strip of plastic?"
"Basically, yes."
"And humans invented this?"
"In the 1960s."
Tavi looked at the Walkman with the expression of someone discovering a new species. Which, Charlie supposed, he sort of was.
"Can I hear it?" he asked.
Charlie smiled. "Yeah, do you think you'll be surprised?"
Tavi waved her off. "Nah, I just want to hear what humans think is 'music.'"
"Hey now, don't knock it til you try it," Charlie retorted.
"Okay, so let me try it."
Charlie took a moment and really looked at him.
He was such a force to be reckoned with, even at his smaller stature, owning that compact energy that still filled every room he entered.
The way he'd thrown himself at the boundary problem for weeks without giving up.
The way he'd realized the answer was within the gradient Charlie herself had presented to the engineering team and Reyna.
This man had no ego, just joy that the problem was beaten.
"Well, what kind of music do you like? What do you listen to?"
"I don't know if it would make sense. Music on Solmari is mostly just the sounds of how our people move from place to place. It sets the rhythm for how we move and travel and find one another."
"That's such an amazing way to use music," Charlie replied, honestly.
"I guess, yeah. But it doesn't really help with me telling you what kind of human music I may like," he stated with a short laugh. Then he looked pensive before asking, "What do you think I'd like?"
Charlie thought about it and she was surprised at how quickly she came up with an answer. Her eyes lit up because she knew the exact song to introduce Tavi to human music. And the band that would get him hooked.
She pulled the cord of the headphones and handed one to Tavi while she placed the other into her own ear. "I know the perfect song."
Tavi took the headphone and looked at it.
He raised his free hand and felt around his ear, then looked back at the headphone.
He made his own attempt to insert it, but Charlie saw that it didn't sit right.
Tessarae ears were slightly wider at the canal, and the small plastic bud kept slipping out.
He turned it sideways. It fell into his lap.
He tried again, pressing it in with determination. It popped out.
"This is humiliating," Tavi muttered.
"Here," Charlie said, laughing. She took the headphone back, angled it slightly, and nestled it into Tavi's ear with a gentle twist. "Hold still. There."
He did, his eyes locked on Charlie with an intensity that he knew he was about to experience either something wonderful or something dangerous. But his expression also showed that he did not even care which it would be.
"Ready."
"Fuck yeah," Tavi replied, a bright grin on his face. Charlie chuckled before looking down at the Walkman and pressed play.
The guitar rift began. The drums drove the rhythm.
And that famous scream hit.
Robert Plant's voice tore through the headphone like a war cry from a civilization Tavi had never heard, a sound so raw and primal and alive that Tavi's entire body went rigid in his seat.
His hands gripped the armrests and his eyes went wide enough that Charlie could see the amber all the way around.
Then the riff kicked in.
Jimmy Page's guitar, relentless and driving, and John Bonham's drums underneath like a heartbeat that refused to slow down, and Tavi was gone. His head started moving first, a sharp nod that caught the rhythm, and then his shoulders, and then his whole body was bouncing in the shuttle seat.
"WHAT IS THIS?!" Tavi shouted, because one headphone in meant he couldn't gauge his own volume.
"Led Zeppelin," Charlie said, grinning so hard her face hurt. "'Immigrant Song.' 1970."
"IT'S INCREDIBLE!"
From across the shuttle, Kess looked up from her medical station with an expression that suggested she was considering whether Tavi was having a medical event. Maren's gaze found them and a smile grew across her face as she watched. Even Torvax turned his head, but only slightly.
Reyna, who had been reviewing the mission plan at the front console, turned around in her chair and looked at Charlie.
Charlie shrugged, still grinning. "He asked what I thought he'd like."
Reyna shook her head, but Charlie saw the smile she was trying to contain.
She and Tavi kept going. Charlie played more Led Zeppelin, then some Kansas, and Tavi took every song like a man who'd been starving and hadn't even known it. When a Cyndi Lauper track came on, slower than the rest, he tilted his head.
"This one's different," he said. "The others were loud on purpose. This one's soft on purpose."
"Yeah. It's a love song."
Tavi considered that. "How can you tell?"
"You just can,” Charlie answered, shrugging a shoulder. “It’s in the way it's built." Charlie tapped the Walkman. "This one's about wanting to be there for somebody. Telling them you'll catch up, wherever they are. That you'll find them."
"Huh." Tavi listened for a moment. "Is there someone you'd play it for?"
Charlie huffed a small laugh. "Not right now. There was, a while back. Her name was Joss. But it didn't work out. First ones usually don't."
"Her," Tavi repeated, a wide grin spreading across his face.
"Her," Charlie agreed, raising an eyebrow.
"Okay," he said, letting the word drag out in appreciation.
But that was it. He nodded once, satisfied, pointing back at the Walkman. "Play the screaming one again."
Charlie laughed, loud enough that Kess glanced over, and cued up ‘Immigrant Song.’
The shuttle had given a warning to the crew when they were thirty minutes to the research station's coordinates. Now everyone was preparing for the landing and full mission start upon arrival.