Lukas

Date July 12, 2116, Earth Standard Time 10:55, Human Circadian Standard Location Skipspace

Doctor Lukas Vond had a lot of talents.

Gift-wrapping wasn’t one of them.

The doctor glared at the folded up piece of tape stuck to his finger.

A seven-hour surgery to repair the damage from a spacesurfing accident? No biggie! He could do it in his sleep!

Not screwing up the wrapping paper for his daughter’s birthday present? A logistical nightmare.

The try three tries ago would’ve been fine. It wasn’t like the paper would even be on the present long enough for Ruth to notice the torn corner, but he couldn’t leave well enough alone, could he?

Then again, it was the first gift he was going to be able to hand to his daughter, in person, in almost two years. She deserved a present that didn’t look like he’d slapped something together last-minute.

Overthinking wasn’t his friend. He knew this. His therapist reminded him. Constantly.

But this was for his daughter. He was allowed to overthink a bit for her.

Maybe he could just use a gift bag...but then Ruth wouldn’t get to rip anything apart. And at ten, that was half the fun of presents, wasn’t it? Plus, he’d need to track down a gift bag, and Spacedock 59 was already three hours behind them in Skipspace. He wasn’t about to ask Sam to turn the ship around––

A sudden, familiar tune from under the mangled paper scraps on his desk.

The doctor froze.

Then grinned.

It was already eleven, wasn’t it?

Quickly, Lukas fished the chiming personal tablet out from under the debris of his failure, moved to answer…then stopped, and gave his face a quick pat down.

There was a piece of tape clinging to his chin.

Good call.

The tape pulled on the ghosts of stubble that were just starting to poke back through his pale skin as he tugged it off, but it was worth it to look presentable. He smoothed his hair down a bit, then took a deep breath, and answered the call.

The love of his life popped onto the small screen.

Neons were such beautiful colors on her. The bright greens and blues of her Responders’ medical uniform contrasted beautifully with her brown skin, and really made her golden eyes pop.

He smiled. “Hey McKenzie. It’s good to see you.”

“You too, Lukas.” Her radiant smile made the corners of her eyes crinkle cutely. “How’s your week been?”

“Going alright,” Lukas shrugged. “A few surgeries, a handful of stalled skipper fixes. Nothing too shock-and-awe. How’s yours?”

She shrugged back. “Best as it can be, under the circumstances. We’re making progress. The vaccination effort’s one of the fastest we’ve ever seen. We reached forty percent of Rulian’s planetside population a couple days ago, and we’re up to sixty percent on their moon. If we can keep up the pace, the system should safely reach herd immunity in about two months. Then we can start inoculating major trade hubs, and expand out from there.”

“That’s fantastic,” Lukas meant it. “I’m sure The Rulians will be happy to get out of quarantine.”

“Happy’s a mild word for it,” McKenzie snorted. “Half their senate’s been screaming to lift the quarantine early for the sake of their economy, but thankfully the Coalition’s been pretty firm about the requirements for authorizing travel out of the solar system. I can’t imagine how bad this could’ve gotten if they hadn’t caught it early.”

“Bad” was an extreme understatement, and they both knew it.

An intergalactic plague caused by a virus as dangerous as the one McKenzie and her team were attempting to fend off would have been a horror on a scale that made part of Lukas’ brain freeze up.

Mars was a huge trading hub. One that normally had a lot of contact with Rulia.

His brother’s home was located in one of the most populous Martian colonies. Lukas’ daughter was staying with him and his brother-in-law while he and McKenzie were on assignment. One wrong contact from a quarantine breach, and so many people he loved could––

“Where’s your head going?”

His wife’s voice snapped him back into the room; he smiled shyly. “Nowhere good. Thanks.”

“Any time,” she nodded. “How about you? Any word from Corey?”

Not exactly the most comforting conversation changer, unfortunately.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“Nothing yet,” Lukas hedged. “He’s busy, I’m sure. Plus my side of the thought-experiment game was pretty weak this time. He’s probably getting a little bored.”

“Lukas, don’t do that, your friend of decades is not going to stop talking to you over one weak move in your thought-experiment game,” McKenzie countered. “Maybe the emulator he’s testing’s not working as well as he’d hoped? He tends to get embarrassed when his projects don’t pan out.”

“Yeah, but he seemed really confident about this one,” Lukas sighed. “The thought experiment bounced off one of the things he was testing with the emulator. I hope I didn’t send him something that screwed it up.”

“I doubt that,” McKenzie shook her head. “You know how Corey is: a flurry of messages, then nothing for months. He’s probably just buried in work. That, or he’s on shore leave.”

Lukas rolled his eyes. “Yeah, that’d be like him. Remember that time he went radio silent for a month, and came back with blue eyebrows and a bottle of Xelan whiskey the size of his leg?”

“How could I forget?” McKenzie winked. “I’m the one who helped him finish the bottle.”

“That was a fun weekend,” Lukas smiled at the memory, then glanced down at the half-wrapped gift on the table. “Oh, I found something great for Ruth’s birthday. Had to stop by Spacedock 59 after a call. They’ve really expanded their market deck.”

She quirked her head. “Spacedock 59? I’m guessing you had a big tow?”

“You could say that,” he huffed. “We had to hand a reckless jackass’ skipper over to Coalition Transit Investigators. Along with the asteroid it was stuck in. He didn’t get anyone killed, so he’s got that going for him, but I doubt they’ll ever let the guy behind the controls again.”

And it might even be the end of the wonderful senator’s career as well. Not a good look for the face of a drug abolitionist movement to get caught blatantly ignoring his own talking points in such a catastrophic way. Especially when he got someone hurt in the process. It was plain luck nobody’d died.

But that would have to come out from the investigation. He wasn’t about to give up personal patient info, even to his wife.

“Sounds like good riddance to me,” she snorted. “Now, what was it you picked up for Ruth’s birthday? Odds aren’t high we got her the same thing, but better safe than––”

A familiar beep echoed through from McKenzie’s side of the screen. She gave him an apologetic look, held up a finger, and checked the message.

“Ack,” McKenzie cringed. “Sorry, I’m gonna have to cut this short. Vaccine shipment’s coming in early, and they need me moonside.”

“Oh, I completely understand,” Lukas did his best to hide his disappointment, and felt bad about being selfish. “Are we still on for Doctor Valez Tuesday?”

“Of course,” McKenzie agreed; cringed. “But I might not be able to talk again before that. It’s pretty hectic here.”

Lukas’ heart sank, but he tried not to show it. Instead, he made himself shrug, and gave her a small smile.

“Not a problem, I know how busy you are.” Though he desperately wished he could sit there and talk to her for hours. “Stay safe out there, McKenzie. I love you.”

That devastating smile again.

“You too. Stay safe.”

The screen blipped off.

Lukas drew a deep breath, and tried to will away the stinging warmth in his eyes.

Would it ever get easier?

While he was working, he could forget that the woman he’d fallen in love with back in undergrad had decided she was happier living without him. But every time they spoke, it became more and more clear to him that taking on a role that would keep them apart for the foreseeable future had made McKenzie happier than she’d been in years. Even if it put her in the public spotlight…and not always in a comfortable way.

Maybe he was just reading into things.

After what had happened on his last assignment, that did tend to be a pattern.

She’d stayed with him through so much. She deserved better.

Or that was just his head spiraling again.

The doctor drew another deep breath, held it, and let it out.

No reason to give up hope. Not yet. If she said she loved him, and wanted to work on things, then he had to take that at face value. He owed her that.

Besides, their tours weren’t supposed to end for another seven months. And that was barring any extensions McKenzie might need to make, given her status as coordinator of the Rulian vaccination efforts…which, frankly, were likely.

There were plenty of therapy sessions ahead of them until then. They had time. They’d work this out.

But if not...well...at least it’d end on good terms.

They’d promised each other that. And their daughter needed them to keep that promise, so they would, when it came to…

Lukas stopped himself.

He was doing it again.

If.

Not when.

Defeatism wasn’t helping anything. Doctor Valez had made that clear. He had to try to keep hope. Try to look for the bright side, even when a loud chunk of his brain wouldn’t shut up about how pointless it was––

“Hey Lukas, are you free?”

The disembodied voice of Samantha, his friend and captain, startled the doctor out of his spiral. He gratefully answered on the intercom.

“Yep, I’m free. What’s up, Sam?”

“We just picked up an emergency signal,” she told him. “Some kind of accident on a transport out in the Merili Nebula. We’ll be there in about four hours.”

Lukas frowned. “That’s a little close to Isolationist space, isn’t it? Are we calling in a security escort?”

“Nearest one’s too far away,” she sounded frustrated. “The nebula scattered the message a bit, but the ship’s captain made it clear that their power’s failing. That’s all we know.”

Ah.

No time to lose then.

“Alright, I’ll tell my team to prep for triage. Whatever we’re flying into, we’ll be ready.”

“Thanks. Once everybody’s briefed, come down to the mess and get something to eat. Ren’s making tacos.”

Ooh.

Yep. That sounded delicious.

...And definitely something he’d want to eat before surgery, rather than after.

“Sounds good. I’ll see you soon.”

“See you there.”

The intercom cut out.

The doctor started to rise, but paused with a glance at his daughter’s half-wrapped present.

He’d really wanted to get that squared away so he couldn’t forget, but now it’d have to wait until they finished cleaning up whatever they were skipping towards...And then, probably another day or so as he recovered from doing a nightmarish number of surgeries...and then he might forget it was on the table, and end up rushing the wrapping job right before he had to leave for Ruth’s party, and she’d be embarrassed by his crappy wrapping, and...

He stopped himself again; drew yet another deep breath, and headed for the door.

No defeatism.

He’d help whoever they were going to help, then he’d finish wrapping.

He could do this.

It’d all work out fine.