17. The Warmth
SEVENTEEN
THE WARMTH
Three days later, a music program existed on Charlie's datapad and on every datapad on the Emberkind.
Anyone could play songs through the datapad's speaker, some headphones, and also control audio output in any room on the ship.
Tavi had helped create a software that was able to queue up songs, shuffle them, and even build playlists.
He had already started converting the rest of Charlie's cassettes, more than happy to spend hours at his console importing the music off the tapes, listening to every song as each one was converted to digital output.
At the next crew meeting, Charlie, Tavi, and Maren presented it to the entire Emberkind staff.
Everyone seemed intrigued by the invention and the abilities they had given to the program.
Charlie reveled in the positive reception amongst the crew.
It was the first thing she had helped build on the Emberkind that was completely spur of the moment, based on a want and not a need, and didn't have anything to do with the run of the ship.
It was purely for entertainment, and she was beginning to see, just in that initial announcement, how it would bring happiness to so many of the crew members.
And she'd done this with the two people she realized were becoming her friends, something she hadn't expected to occur aboard an alien ship while she was traveling through uncharted space.
Charlie's gaze traveled around the room, watching the crew explore the new music program on their datapads. She saw Tavi talking to Selowen, seeming slightly frustrated. Charlie could only imagine what it was he was trying to show her.
Maren was by her side, leaning towards Charlie. "I think we're a hit," she said, her eyes scanning the room and seeing everyone with their heads buried in their datapads.
Charlie nodded. "I think we are," she answered, looking over at Maren fully, seeing a wide grin on the Noethan's face.
"You know, you're going to leave a mark here," Maren said.
Charlie's smile faded, letting those words sink in before Maren continued.
"It's almost a shame Earth is a non-contact planet.
I think it would be so much fun having you aboard.
" Maren looked over at her again. "And I don't think I'm the only one to think that. "
"I do, that's for sure," Tavi said, coming up to them both, startling Charlie slightly as he'd practically snuck up behind her. "You're good people. You're Emberkind people."
Charlie considered what Tavi had said and, the truth was, at least if she was being honest with herself, this moment, with the music system and Tavi and Maren and the whole Emberkind crew enjoying what the three of them built, was the closest she'd felt to home since before Helen had passed.
"Thanks, really," Charlie said, putting her arm around Maren's shoulders and laying her palm on top of Tavi's.
"You're both good people, too. And are you seeing the reactions from everyone to the music system?
" She asked, pushing Maren and Tavi's attention to the crew around them and the excited faces still blazoned across each and every member in the room. "They're excited!"
"As they damn well should be!" Tavi exclaimed. "Wait until they hear Michael, or Queen, or Prince! Or even Tom Petty. Man, they are in for a fine tasty treat," he said, his eyebrows raising up and down to Charlie and Maren. Charlie laughed, while Maren just gave Tavi a look.
At that, Charlie's gaze moved around the room further, finally landing on Reyna. She met her eyes, realizing the Captain had already been looking in her direction. Reyna smiled, then bowed her head to Charlie before standing up straight again. Charlie immediately recognized it as 'you did good.'
Charlie returned the smile, reeling over something she did that seemed to matter to the Captain. She stood a little taller, then lifted her shoulders with a tilt of her head, pretending to shrug off the compliment.
Reyna rolled her eyes at Charlie's reaction, causing Charlie to laugh softly. Reyna reacted to that with a laugh Charlie couldn't hear, but then, just, held her gaze.
Tavi's voice broke through, causing Charlie to break eye contact.
"What do you think, Charlie?" Tavi asked.
"I'm sorry," Charlie said. "What do I think about... what?"
"Were you even listening?" Tavi asked, mock hurt written all over his face.
"Sorry, Tav, not intentional."
"You know, that's the second time you've called me 'Tav.'"
"I'm sorry—"
"I like it. A lot. So, you're forgiven."
"Thanks, Tav," Charlie said, emphasizing Tavi's new nickname.
"Now you're gonna start making me blush. Let's move on before that happens!" Charlie laughed before Tavi continued. "Anyway, here's what I was saying when you weren't paying attention..."
As Tavi repeated his idea for upgrading the software handling the water temperature for one of the habitats, Charlie's gaze returned to Reyna across the room.
But the Captain was deep in conversation with Torvax and Selowen.
And though Reyna wasn't looking at her, Charlie was smiling, because Reyna was, bright and beaming and full, and that was more than enough to make Charlie happy.
In the days following the crew meeting, Charlie's music did something she never imagined.
It escaped.
It started out small. Tavi, who had appointed himself Chief Music Conversion Officer, a title he had made up and Charlie was certain wasn't Reyna-approved, had set up a permanent station in the corner of the Engineering Bay where he spent his off-hours importing cassettes.
He listened to every song as it converted, head bobbing.
Occasionally, he'd get Charlie's attention.
"Charlie! This one sounds like what falling in love would feel like if falling in love was a guitar solo!
" Every time, she responded with enthusiasm.
Living vicariously through Tavi, hearing these songs for the first time, reminded her of all the memories she had with Frank, Helen, Katie, even Joss, listening to music and reveling in its mastery.
But then the music started showing up in places Charlie didn't expect.
One afternoon, she heard something playing in the corridor returning to Engineering.
It was tinny through a datapad speaker, barely recognizable, but unmistakably "Take On Me.
" She'd stopped walking and listened, trying to figure out where it was coming from, or who was listening.
A few moments later, a crew member she didn't know rounded the corner, datapad in hand, and startled when he saw her.
"You're Charlie!" he said, then gesturing at his datapad.
"I am," Charlie responded tentatively.
"This," he said, gesturing at the datapad again. "This came from you, right?"
"The music?" Charlie asked. The man nodded. "Yeah, I mean, it's Earth music. From my collection. In my bag." Charlie stopped before she told him what pocket she kept it in.
"This song is very..." he searched for the word. "Energetic."
"That's one way to describe 'Take On Me,'" Charlie said.
He nodded seriously at her. "Thank you for sharing this with us." And with that, he gave her a slight nod and kept walking, the song trailing behind him down the corridor like a small, synthpop ghost.
Borran had taken to humming. Charlie had walked into the galley three mornings in a row to find Borran working dough while producing a sound that was unidentifiable, until a special bridge in a certain song, and Charlie suddenly realized it was, “The Longest Time.
" This was both the worst and the most endearing thing she'd ever heard.
She didn't have the heart to tell him he was humming it in the wrong key.
But honestly? She suspected he already knew and he just didn't care.
Maren had pulled Charlie aside one afternoon, requesting a specific song that she'd heard Charlie play just once, three weeks ago, when she, Charlie, and Tavi were constructing the initial build.
She gave Charlie the date, the time, and even the section of the particular tape it had been on.
Charlie had stared at her. "You remember all that? "
Maren had looked at her with confusion, as if the question itself was strange. "Of course."
On her lunch breaks, Charlie had started visiting the Aetherfin habitat.
She'd arrange to take whatever Borran had packed for her down to the central atrium, lean against the railing overlooking the zero-gravity sphere, and eat while watching the creatures drift and the changes among their slow, bioluminescent patterns.
It was the quietest spot on the ship, and the rhythm of the Aetherfins had a way of untangling whatever engineering problem had knotted itself in her brain.
And, she also started talking to them.
Somewhere between the thermal coupling issue on deck four and the power distribution problem in the aft corridor, Charlie had fallen into the habit of thinking out loud at the railing the same way she used to think out loud over open hoods in the garage back home.
"Okay, so if the flow rate drops when the secondary valve compensates, then the issue isn't pressure, it's timing," she'd murmur, gesturing with half a sandwich, while Aetherfins drifted past in slow, blue indifference.
She was fairly certain the creatures couldn't hear her through the sphere walls, but it didn't matter much to Charlie. The Aetherfins were good listeners