14. The Aetherfin Undertaking #6
Charlie watched the light play across the atrium. She thought about a research station going dark, funding redirected, subjects abandoned. She thought about the Emberkind existing specifically to be the ship that goes back.
"It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen."
When the end of the day was upon them all, Charlie was in Engineering. The mission was behind everyone and the Aetherfin were drifting about in their new home above. Charlie sat on the floor against the engine housing with her Walkman in her lap.
Maren was at a console nearby, running post-mission diagnostics while Tavi was cross-legged on the floor beside Charlie, his crimson locs catching the light from the diagnostic displays.
"So," Tavi said. "What else do you have on those tapes?"
Charlie laughed. "Eighteen more where that came from."
"Eighteen." His eyes went wide. "Eighteen entire collections of that?"
"Different kinds. Different sounds. Some loud, some quiet. Some happy, some sad." She turned the Walkman over in her hands, studying it. "My whole emotional life captured here in magnetic tape."
"I want to hear all of it," Tavi said, with the absolute certainty of someone who had found a new obsession and intended to pursue it without restraint.
"We'll get there," Charlie said.
Maren looked over from her console. "The gradient held beautifully, Charlie. Every junction point performed within the parameters you designed. I've never seen a first-implementation run that clean."
"She's right," Tavi added. "The real-time recalibration during the third transfer was..." He searched for the word. "Elegant."
Charlie felt a warmth spread through her chest. She'd completed something difficult alongside people who were good at what they did. But having them see that she was good at what she did too gave her a feeling of belonging she hadn't felt in a long while.
She leaned her head back against the housing, closed her eyes, and pressed play on the Walkman. A bright, driving rhythm filled the Engineering Bay, and Daryl Hall's voice cut through the space with an energy that matched exactly how Charlie felt.
"You hooked it up in here?" Tavi asked, his eyes sparking to life.
"Mmhmm," Charlie said, nodding her head, her eyes still closed. Tavi gave off a soft chuckle, then she felt him lean his head back on the housing next to her.
"I think I might love you."
This time, it was Maren who let out a loud bark of laughter, her hand going up to her mouth to keep the rest of it in.
Charlie's eyes snapped open before she looked over at Maren.
Watching the usually calm and collected Noethan shake uncontrollably with intense laughter got Charlie giggling, and then she too was laughing out loud.
When Charlie joined, Maren dropped her hand, and they laughed together as Tavi looked between both of them, his eyebrow raised.
"I will not defend myself," Tavi said. This only caused Charlie and Maren to laugh louder.
As the musical accompaniment and the lyrics of "You Make My Dreams Come True" continued to play through the Engineering Bay, the three engineers laughed, conversed, and participated in general merriment.
Charlie was happy. Genuinely and completely happy, for the first time since Helen had passed.
Of course, she missed Katie, and worried about her constantly and how she was faring on Earth.
She was worried about her return, what the remaining five months could contain for her being away from her home.
But she also realized that she was coming closer to feeling as though the Emberkind was the best place to be while she worked her way back.
She could be useful, she could help both the crew and the animals, and maybe she could make a difference while she was there.
Five months. She'd started counting them without meaning to. But unlike every countdown she'd ever tracked in her life that had pointed at something arriving, this countdown pointed at a door closing behind her. She let the thought stop there, not following any further than that.
But underneath the joy, quiet and persistent and entirely without permission, something else was there too.
Her mind kept circling back to the shuttle.
To Reyna's hand in hers during the launch, steady and warm and certain.
And then later, on the return, how the warmth had simply...
receded. Reyna sitting next to her, smiling, saying all the right things, and something still not adding up.
She couldn't pinpoint what had changed. Reyna had been fine for the rest of the mission.
Warm, even, during the Cael confrontation.
But something between the launch and the landing had shifted by a degree Charlie could feel but couldn't measure.
She'd figure it out. Whatever it was. For now, the music was playing and the day had been good, and the something that had settled into her chest watching Reyna say whenever you're ready with a voice that meant it was still warm and still unnamed and still entirely hers.
She leaned back against the engine housing again, closed her eyes, and let the music fill the room, her heart, and her mind.