If Jove Stray

Chapter 16: facing the storm

Not eating was strange, but not feeling hungry at all was even more odd. He watched Alcott make breakfast and was perfectly content to drink a glass of water in the meantime.

"I messaged your madre," Alcott mentioned. "We're having lunch with her."

It took him a moment to translate madre to mother, but then he frowned. "That's not fair," he complained. "It's only been a day."

"You have two options today," she replied. "Go back to cryo to wake in a different century or make peace with your parents. We have less than four hundred people on this base and I'm not going to spend my time avoiding your parents when they are messaging me repeatedly. Titus has been drafting our new constitution; this is a chance to know what will be on it. We just became important on this base, like it or not. "

Tyson grumbled under his breath but didn't protest. He knew she was right, even if he kept magically hoping that he would fall asleep and be back on Earth. The sheer breadth of his homesickness was like a weight on his shoulders.

"I see the clothes fit," she continued. "Did you try the shoes? Do you need a new pair?"

"No, they're fine," he answered. "Thank you. The holo-rib however is weird, and I'm going to need help with it. I miss my phone."

"Phone?" she questioned.

Tyson would have never imagined he'd be sitting space explaining a phone, but such things were becoming commonplace in his life.

"It's like a holo-rib, but it has a screen you can touch," he said.

"So like a tablet."

"But smaller."

"Oh."

Alcott gave him a shake of her head, braids swinging.

"The Canary crew still used tablets when they got here. The holo-ribs are faster and smaller. And they're connected to the network here. You can message anyone you like; the contacts are already in your device."

"How do you know which one is yours, they're all the same?"

Alcott pulled her holo-rib out and peered at it.

"I always have mine on me," she said. "Marcus and I would switch occasionally by accident, but his was set up differently than mine. He had the water reports as his main page."

"Was that his job?"

"Oui, he worked in filtration. After a while, he was more of a liaison between Dylan and Anatoly. We'd go out to the lake and plant new plants most weekends."

Her eyes glistened with tears, but she didn't mention them. Tyson was trying not to respond to her like her therapist, but his training was winning out.

"Do you still go to the lake?"

Alcott shook her head. "I haven't been out there since. Partially because of the baby, but mostly because...you know."

"It might be good to go," he observed. "It sounds like it was important to you."

"A lot of things were important to me then," she sighed and placed her hands on her stomach. "They were less important things."

"They are still a part of you," Tyson pointed out. "Life never stops, no matter what we wish. You're making me deal with my mother, why don't we go out to the lake?"

Alcott giggled. "There's an earthstorm. We can't go outside." She reflected a moment. "But we can see my garden. Seasons, I haven't been out there in a cycle, maybe more."