First Date on New Sendai Station (River_Wolf + Starkness)

[Starkness]

Daren Garcia-Zhao quickly rinsed the soap from his short-cut dark hair, sputtering as warm water and suds spilled down his chest. Water was in short supply on the starship (after all, they’d been recycling it for ten years) and he was only allotted about thirty seconds of shower time a week. He scrubbed as hurriedly as he could, knowing that he needed this shower to count. In a few hours he’d get off this ship for the first time in a decade, which meant he could find a bar, and a drink, and a woman. The last thing he wanted was to smell like a long-haul freighter.

The water ran out and Daren stepped out of the tiny shower. He stood naked in front of the mirror, slowly shaving off his dark beard until he was smooth-cheeked. He turned his face from side-to-side. When was the last time he didn’t have a beard? He couldn’t remember. Eight? Maybe nine years.

He wondered if the loneliness showed in his gentle brown eyes. The Celebration Leap was a long-hauler making the decade-long run to stations at the edges of known space. When he’d climbed aboard for this assignment he’d been twenty, barely a man and looking for adventures in space. What a disappointment it had been to realize that space was intensely boring. The crew was only two dozen but being stationed down the length of the ten-mile freighter meant he barely saw another human being. They worked in pairs, but his partner was a gruff slob named Helium who barely spoke and when he did say something it was crude. Not exactly human companionship.

Daren practiced a smile. Damn. It looked forced. He took a deep breath. He was nervous. All he wanted from shore leave was to hump his brains out, but he worried. He was pretty out of practice at talking to women. He smiled again and winked. Then shook his head with a sigh and slipped into his grey company-issue coveralls.

“Real smooth,” he chided himself.

He was good-looking enough. He kept his hair clipped short, because it was easy and practical. He’d made a point to hit the gym in his section daily and his body was toned. It wasn’t his looks that worried him, it was the years of isolation that clung to him like a musk. Living in space changed a man.

He made his way from the lavatories to the nearest portal and gazed out the frost-sheened window at the glimmering station, lights blinking in the blackness of space. It was still a few hours away, but already the place looked huge, a vast city hanging in the abyss. He shivered. The hours passed like an eternity, but finally they lurched into shuttle distance.

When the airlock clamped and the doors slowly hissed open, Daren felt a rush of wind. The air smelled so different. His crew mates were slapping each other on the back and whooping. They started to run down the long corridor. Again, they had to wait, each of them being processed into the station, but at last Daren found himself standing amid a neon-flashing marketplace. People milled around him. Families. Women. The air smelled like teriyaki and burgers. Teens leaned and flirted, people smiled. It was almost overwhelmingly noisy.

“Garcia.” A man’s hand clapped his shoulder. He turned. The captain. “You didn’t forget, did you?”

Daren stared blankly at him.

“Life support? Oxygen? You’ve got to get that sorted out before shore leave.”

Daren shook his head.

“Sorry, sure. I’ll do that right away. Captain.”

They’d planned this via transmission once the ship was in communications range. They needed to upgrade the life support, especially oxygen regeneration for the ship. There was a scientist here on the station who was apparently a specialist. He just wanted to get that out of the way so that he could lose himself in some woman’s arms.

Daren pulled his telepad out of his pocket and flipped to the directions.

“Let’s get this out of the way,” he sighed.

 

[River_Wolf]

"Look at you." Alani Hoa cooed into her dissecting microscope, peering through the double lens with all the glee of a child seeing their new puppy for the first time. She adjusted the petri dish, shifting it slightly to get better angle. Inside was a sample of lichen she'd pulled from her latest project. Small amounts of water clung to the lichen and in them, a find Alani was not expecting, Tardigrades. "Aloha my little water bear. Welcome to the station." How they managed to make it into her lab was a bit of a mystery. Although, if she had to guess they probably stowed away on one of the plants in a state of cryptobiosis, or basically extreme hibernation.

Still grinning, Alani leaned back and looked around her lab. It was an enormous complex, perhaps too big some might say. The main room where she sat was a greenhouse, filled to the brim with a wide variety of plants. Everything from produce, grains, and herbs to flowers, trees, mushrooms, and even a carnivorous plant made their home in her lab. Her babies, all of them. Alani leaned against one of the few free tables in the area, although calling it free was a bit generous since it currently had her notes and microscope. The rest of the lab was just as fun though. Several rooms split off from the main area. Each had a specific purpose. Some were dedicated to plants with specific needs. Others were for more traditional lab work. Alani spent many long nights in them, cataloging data in the computer room or manipulating genes in what she dubbed her "Evil Scientist" room. Basically it was the place where the real magic happened. That and she liked making touch powder in one of the chemical hubs for the holidays. Nothing said happy new year like a homemade popper.

This lab was her home. She'd spent years studying and working her ass off to earn it. Her PhDs in Manipulative Genetics and Botany spoke almost as loudly as the research she did as a post-grad. Now, at the age of 28, she got really enjoy the relative seclusion her lab provided. So long as she kept making better plants, people tended to leave her alone. Heck, her garden wasn't even the main source of food for the station. It was just her really. Needless to say, she didn't really put much stock into dressing herself up. Her long, wavy, chestnut hair stayed pulled back in a ponytail so it was out of the way. Any part of exposed copper skin was typically covered in various scratches or dirt if it was a heavy gardening day. That day was a benchwork day, she she really only suffered from yesterday's scrapes. Her lab coat though certainly showed signs of abuse and her clothes were a simple shirt and basic cargo pants. Not fashionable, but very functional.

Satisfied she'd seen enough, Alani deposited the sample and its inhabitants back into her mock jungle floor. She strode over to the fruit tree and plucked one of the ripe orange. The tree, a fruit salad tree, housed a number of different fruits. This particular citrus tree grew eight different fruits. Alani just liked the oranges best. She hummed to herself as she made her way back to the table, peeling as she went.

 

[Starkness]

Daren consulted his telepad. This was the place. A non-descript pressure door identical to the rest in this long corridor – identical except for the peeling label: G-1292. This section of the hall’s illumination strips were on the fritz leaving the doorway dim. There was a little touchpad to the right of the door, and it flickered to life when his fingers tentatively drew near, displaying a thumbprint. He pressed his thumb, expecting this to register new options, but instead the door slid open with a hiss. Welcoming, he thought.

He poked his head inside and saw a short, dark hallway ending in a bulkhead and another sealed door. He approached the door, not sure how else to get anyone’s attention in this place. As he approached, the door hissed open revealing a jungle. A gust of warm, moist air touched his face. Daren peered around at the amazing collection of fauna in this lab. It was dizzying.

Spaceships were arid places, and the crew always battled the effects of dry air. In fact, that was one of his primary jobs on the ship: Life Support Engineer, Level III. He kept the systems running that provided oxygen, moisture and heat for the humans on board. Now he took a deep breath of the steamy air, letting the memories of home wash over him.

For a moment he had a memory of old earth, growing up in the tropics with summers so hot and humid it felt like a sauna. He hadn’t seen this much green since Earth, when he would hike the jungle paths near his home. He had such fond memories of those days: exploring the ruined factories now rusting along the coast, overgrown by the jungle; skinny dipping in the balmy water to harvest parts from the barnacle-encrusted industrial robots inert and rusting just beneath the surface; making out with Marisa Cho in what was once the factory break room, which Daren had converted to his hideout. Good memories, even though Earth itself had seen better days.

“Hello?” he called. “This is Daren Garcia-Zhao from the freighter Celebration Leap. Is anybody here?”

All he could see from where he stood was foliage. He took several steps into the room.

“Hello?”

 

[River_Wolf]

A voice echoed through Alani's domain. One that wasn't hers. Alani jumped, the orange slipping from her hands along with a startled cry. Both of which were quickly followed by a stream of curses. What a waste. "With you in a minute!" She yelled, somewhat gruffly. Alani scooped up the orange. Many of slices were damaged from the fall, leaking juice down her fingers. The pieces of rind had a thin layer of dirt. That was going to go into dinner or potentially desert. Well... so much for that plan. Alani sighed deeply. Oh well. She placed everything onto her lab table, suckling her juicy fingers. Screw it, a little dirt wouldn't kill her. She'd just eat the orange after dealing with whoever ruined her snack. Plus the rind would be washed. With one final wipe of her hands on her coat, she turned to the nuisance.

Said nuisance stood at the front of her lab with the 'I've been in deep space for far too long' look. She'd seen it before. Freshly washed, neatly shaved, trying desperately to look like they belonged on Earth or the Station. But, funny thing about skin that doesn't see water or a razor very often, it gets just a little bit red. It was subtle, but there. Honestly, Alani found it rather attractive. Granted, that was one of two basic options at the station when it came to dating so her tastes had probably adjusted to match.

Focus, Alani, she mentally chided herself. Job came first.

"Aloha. Sorry about that. Welcome to my mauka lab. Celebration Leap you said? I think I remember something about that." Alani waved for him to follow her before heading deeper into the jungle. She lead him through the trees to one of the offshoot rooms. It was a more stereotypical office. A desk with a computer sat in the back of the room with a few filing cabinets on the walls. Two chairs sat in front of the desk for guests. Overall, the room looked almost out of place when compared to the lush greenery of the rest of the lab. Alani sat down at the desk, firing up the computer as she checked her logs.

"Let's see. Leap. Leap. Here it is! A request for one of the biomechanical oxygen regeneration and air filtration systems right?" Alani smiled at Daren, already getting excited. She could practically feel the ramble on the tip of her tongue, begging to be released. The lichens used in the system were practically her babies. She'd go on for hours about them if anyone would let her.

 

[Starkness]

Daren cleared his throat.

“Ah, that’s right,” he replied. “Oxygen regeneration. Life support.”

He sat on the other side of her desk, with this woman smiling at him, a glint in her eyes as she talked about her science – but Daren was having a hard time focusing. He could feel her presence in the room like heat, or like a breath of wind: subtle but undeniable. He knew he’d just been cooped up too long in a lonely starship. He just wasn’t used to being around people, and especially not women. She was dressed practically and covered in dirt, her dark, wavy hair pulled up – and he thought he’d never seen anyone more alluring in his entire life.

Daren shook his head, trying to snap himself out of it. He’d heard about this before. It was called “deep space syndrome”. It had a disorienting effect on the brain and manifested differently for each person. Some became paranoid, others depressed. Apparently, he became awkwardly attracted to the first woman he met.

“This place is… Something else.” Daren wanted to slap himself out of it. You sound like a blithering idiot, he thought. He cleared his throat again, squared his shoulders, and took charge of himself. He flashed her a brief smile and decided honesty was the best policy.

“I’m sorry, I’ve been in space for a decade and I’m afraid I’ve lost my ability to be a person.” He laughed, extending his palm. “I’m Daren, by the way? And what I meant to say was... Spectacular. Your lab. I haven’t seen anything so lush since Earth. I bet there aren’t this many plants for light years in any direction.”

 

[River_Wolf]

Alani took Daren's simple comment as all the invitation she needed to launch into her explanation. "Thought so. It's a marriage of mechanical and biological engineering. The actual device uses a combination of the old mechanical systems with large internal structure to help house genetically engineered lichen. Don't get me wrong, lichens are amazing at taking up enormous amounts of carbon dioxide and nitrogen on their own. Plus they make a ton of oxygen. But these puppies are like the superheroes of the lichen world! It was actually a pretty fun problem to solve since a lichen is actually three different organism, not one. Talk about symbiosis, am I right?"

The more Alani said, the faster she said it. Her eyes lit up as she went through her spiel with immense amounts of enthusiasm and pride. She clearly hadn't had the chance to ramble about the subject to anyone or those that she tried managed to flee. Alani needed to talk about it. At some point, she actually got up and walked around before finally settling back down in her seat.

Walking helped calm Alani down a bit. "Anyways, point is you'll actually need to care for them but that comes in the instruction manual and I'll show you how to do that once the system is installed. Little bit more work, but so much more efficient!"

Daren's out of nowhere comment called a bark of laughter out of Alani. His attempt to clear things up only made Alani smile more. "Mahalo. I'm glad you like it." She took his hand in hers and shook it. "I know, you told me. I'm Alani Hoa. There's not just plants here. I got Fungi and lichen too... in case my big speech didn't make that obvious. You're welcome to check out my own little island paradise. If you want too. You don't have to... I've got some paperwork for you, but there's no rush."

 

[Starkness]

“It’s… Nice to meet you, Alani.” Alani. The name rolled satisfyingly off his tongue.

“It’s amazing. Our ship mostly uses chemical methods for oxygen production, such as generative electrolysis – but plant-based oxygen would be so much better. Our botany bay was amazing in the early years, but we had a hard time sustaining it. Except for the tomatoes. So fucking sick of tomatoes, by the way.”

He winced a bit for swearing. Not the impression he wanted to make, like a salty space-dog.

“I’ve never seen anyone quite so excited about lichen,” he said, loving the way her eyes sparkled as she talked. “But it’s cool that you’ve figured all of this out. What got you started, if you don’t mind me asking?”

Daren reflected that she would probably do well on a starship. Better than he had done. Her intellectual curiosity seemed to drive her, and he guessed she might not even notice the monotony. Whereas for him it seemed unbearably boring. Maybe he just needed the right hobby for the next leg? Ugh, the thought of embarking again left him with a sinking feeling.

He shook his head. “Really, this place is amazing. Would you mind… Showing me around? I mean, I know next to nothing about plants, but... Well, the air reminds me of home.”

 

[River_Wolf]

"Nice to meet you too." Alani beamed, happy that she had the chance to ramble about her precious creations to someone other than the other plants. Most of the people she worked with on the project only stuck around long enough to discuss work, assuming they came by in person at all. Frankly, a lot of her communication with her coworkers was via messages.

"Well, I don't think you'll have to worry about these puppies." Alani bragged, the swearing not phasing her one bit. "Lichen are hardy things, even before my meddling. One old paper I read discussed an experiment where unaltered lichen were placed into a capsule and launched into space. Those suckers survived. But if you kill my babies I will hunt you down." She glared at Daren, hard. The effect only lasted a minute though before a smile cracked through the mask and she laughed. "Kidding. Probably."

Alani leaned against the desk, grinning like an idiot. She was way to excited about talking to someone. Starved of human contact probably. Gods, she needed to get out more. Well, as out as one could get on a space station. Actually, since her lab was technically the closest anyone could come to "going outside" as it was known on Earth, maybe she needed to get in more? A query for another time. Especially since Daren was asking her about her past.

"Honestly, I missed home." Alani sighed. "I grew up on the big island of Hawaii. Even with everything wrong, the Island was still beautiful. So much greenery and nature. But we moved to the station when I was twelve. If I couldn't go back home, I figured I'd find a way to bring home to me. What about you? What path did you walk to end up on a long-distance hauler?"

Daren took Alani up on her offer, awkwardly asking if she'd show him around. A heat rose to Alani's cheeks and she felt like she was showing off. Well... okay, she was, but it felt more intimate than simply showing someone around. "Sure, follow me. If you see anything you like, ask before you take. I'll let you know if it's edible or not." With that, she pushed off her spot on the desk and headed into the main lab portion. Since Daren was stuck on a hauler, she figured the fruit salad trees were the best option. As she walked, she pointed out one plant or another, explaining what it was and what she thought about it. Most of it involved the plants' various "cool" and uniques attributes.

 

[Starkness]

“Hawaii, cool,” he said. “I grew up in on the coast of Taiwan, in the old factory cities there, in the English district. The bot factories closed before I was born, but lots of families like mine emigrated from the Republic of California to take advantage of all the robotics jobs in China. Kind of an economic wasteland now that all the robotics factories are on Mars. I was lucky to get on a freighter… I guess. But the jungle has started to overtake all the old infrastructure. It’s kind of beautiful in its own way.”

He smiled at Alani. He liked her instinctually. Maybe it was the deep space syndrome, but he felt himself drawn to her, fascinated by her, enthused by her enthusiasm.

“I’ve been on a ship way too long,” he said. She slid off her desk and he watched how she moved. He’d forgotten what it felt like to be close to someone he liked. He could sense her aura when she stepped passed him, and it made him feel a mixture of calm and excitement. He noticed the flush on her coppery cheeks, just barely visible, but enough to affect him.

Pull yourself together, man, he thought. You’ve seen a woman before.

Yep, but it had been a long time since he’d had a crush.

Dude, chill.

He took a breath and followed her on the tour. He did his damnedest not to stare at her ass, to keep his eyes on the plants – but sort of failed. She was dressed for work, for tending a garden. Nothing about her outfit was meant to impress, or reveal, flirt – but he couldn’t have imagined a more appealing outfit on a woman. When she turned, caught his eyes, he felt his gut twirl. He was nervous. Awkward. Excited.

Dude. Fucking chill.

“This is so unbelievably cool,” he said, running his fingers over the broad leaf of a rubber plant. “I’m so… Impressed.”

Ask her out for a drink, he told himself.

The thought alone made his palms sweat.

He asked her a ton of questions instead, about her lab, and the flora. The plants were fascinating, but he was more interested in her. He knew he probably wouldn’t retain much of the tour, but he loved the sound of her voice. He wanted more of her enthusiasm. She seemed to enjoy the fact that he was listening – and Daren could think of nothing he wanted more than to keep listening to her talk about what she loved.

“I miss the jungle,” he said. “I miss the ocean, too. I used to dive along the coast for salvage parts I could repair and sell. It was peaceful, you know? Humid. Green…”

He’d always associated the jungle with freedom, with becoming a man. All of his best memories had happened in the jungle. Alani reminded him of those days, as if she'd somehow captured the spirit of the plants.

"Alani," he said, enjoying the sound of her name on his tongue. "Such a great name... What does it mean?"

 

[River_Wolf]

"Mother nature will always reclaim what's rightfully hers. Even out here." Even out here life thrived in ways she could never control. The water-bears proved that. Life could exist in the vacuum of space for as long as it needed to until it found a better place to live. Alani wasn't surprised at all to hear that the jungles in Taiwan were reclaiming the cities. Heck, no scientist worth their salt would be.

Alani laughed at Daren't comment about being on a ship for too long. "You and me both. I'd love to end up on a colony. Heck, I'll even take back on Earth." Sure, she knew that's not what he meant. There was a big difference between being on a space station and a long distance hauler. Yet, Alani could relate to the sentiment, or at least how she read it. She missed the sky. The sun. An ocean breeze. Birds and other wildlife calling out to one another. The smell of a cooked pork rising from an underground oven.

Daren's complimented her lab and Alani blushed. She ran a hand over her ear, pulling a stray strand of hair behind it as she glanced away. One compliment she could beam at with pride, but they just kept coming. Honestly, she was starting to take it personally. Like, he was complimenting her and not her work. She pushed the thought aside, and focused on answering his questions instead. Easy enough. Actually, really easy. Alani eagerly answered every question he threw at her, even offering up answers to ones he never even asked. None of it scared Daren off. He stayed and listened.

"I miss it too. The black sand beaches were always my favorite. I used to run around as a child and chase the crabs. One time I was very small I was sitting on an old lava flow, watching the tide pools, and I saw a sea turtle not five feet away. I couldn't believe it. It just sat there, eating seaweed. Didn't even seem to care I was there. It was the first and last one I ever saw. Sad to say, no one will ever see one again."

Alani sighed sadly. She placed her hand on one of the tree branches, pulling it lightly down to pluck off a few unhealthy leaves as she regretted bringing up that story. A part of her wondered if that would be the straw that finally sent Daren packing. He'd be so patient. So attentive.

Daren came to the rescue when he asked about her name. Alani chuckled and pulled an orange from one of the trees. "This." She gently tossed the fruit to Daren. "What about you? Does your name hold any special meaning?"

 

[Starkness]

Daren rolled the orange over in his palm. Orange? She was named after the fruit. He smiled.

“It’s a good name,” he said. “My name is nothing so cool as that. You know, post-American parents, part of the great exodus to the Pacific. Daren was my dad’s name, I guess it means something like ‘pretty decent’. Funny how so many generations of my family lived in California, came from China and Mexico and Costa Rica, and they struggled and then thrived in the Republic, forgot the native languages and traditions… And then a hundred years later my family uproots it all and goes to Taiwan for jobs. Then fifty years after that the jobs are gone and we’re all poor as dirt.”

Daren shrugged. “I guess that’s how it goes.”

He listened to her story about the sea turtle, knowing that same feeling of sadness at the state of nature.

“I used to sit on the rusting metal beams of the factory watching the waves roll in. I’d imagine what Earth would be like if people were just… gone. Nature could reclaim the planet. I mean, we’ve done a pretty spectacular job of making it uninhabitable… It’s just too bad that sea turtles couldn’t have had a fighting chance. But you never know... Nature is full of surprises.”

The planet had grown unpredictable. The last century had been terrible for the humans left on Earth: famine, war, disease. Those who could had left the surface and now lived in the great ringed stations orbiting the planet. He’d heard it was a life of decadence, but only for just a lucky few. Things had settled down back on the surface now that the population had been decimated, and nature had started to reassert itself. But planetside was still a backwater with no opportunities and a short life expectancy. The oceans were mostly barren, but plants thrived and the jungles had started to take over.

“I mean, home had its terrible parts, but there’s no substitute. You’re lucky to have grown up in Hawaii, I always wanted to go there. I heard it was isolated enough that people mostly left it alone during the upheavals.”

 

[River_Wolf]

"Such a rich family history." Alani said, a little impressed that he could remember it all. "My family always lived in Hawaii, going all the way back to when our ancestors first set foot on the island. We were the first generation to leave. My dad told me we were just returning to our ancestors roots. Exploring the oceans among the stars. But... it always felt more to me like we were betraying them by leaving our homeland."

A growing sense of kinship bubbled between Alani and Daren. Although they were in wildly different areas in life, they came from such similar backgrounds; places of beauty and childhoods filled with greenery and nature. Daren harbored an appreciation for living things that Alani just didn't see that often. At least, not in the same way. There were those who spent their entire lives on space crafts and so, for them, plants were like some mythical creature. Seeing one was almost a religious experience for them. Except, it wasn't a real understanding of why the plants were special. They just desired the plants because they were exotic and rare. Daren was different. He remembered.

"True." Alani hummed, thinking back on the strife that defined the world in her childhood. "We weren't without conflict, but most of what we had to worry about came from the indirect effects. Isolation helped keep wars away, but encourage famine. The dying seas meant less fish. The changing climate made growing food difficult. When the volcanoes became active we were left to handle the destruction on our own. But I would not have traded it for the world."

Alani reached up and grabbed an orange for herself. She turned it in her hand, feeling the rough texture beneath her fingers. "All this sad talk is no good for a first meeting. What do you say I grab the paperwork you need, clock out, and treat you to a drink as an apology?"