Leon pulled himself into the aft of the ship where the main body of the Leif Erikson widened from only eight internal meters to well over forty. The rear of the ship contained many of the power systems and propulsion systems of the ship. The main and secondary reactor units were lower down under the main hold where the two SSV's were locked down. Leon passed through the large hanger area and through another airlock to a smaller room.
Sabine and Chad looked over at him as the doors to the airlock cycled open, they were anchored near one of the probes. Their feet were attached to the floor via velcro pads that allowed them to maintain a relatively stable position with minimal effort.
"Hi Leon." Sabine said brightly to him as he entered.
Leon nodded politely as he equipped a pair of velcro pads and lowered himself to the de facto floor of the room. As he plodded to them he saw that they were working on adding the thin tungsten plates to the heat shield of the probe. The probe was large, about the size of a small car. It contained in it the lander, the relay station and the rover. All together it was quite a large package.
"How is it working out?" He asked them.
Chad stood and let his arms drift free for a moment before pulling them in and pointing to the underside of the heat shield "So far the ablative plates have been fine. The hard part was finding how to get them to stay in place. The shields were never designed to accommodate additional armor." He said with a huff.
Sabine smiled and patted Chad on the shoulder before saying "We are making progress. We just need the additional shielding to hold for about thirty seconds. So far we have cemented it, spot welded it to some of the supports, and curled some of the edges to hold to the sides better. It's not perfect but it should hold for long enough." She added, a little unsure sounding.
Leon nodded mostly to himself before he said "It'll be fine. It only needs to get it below fifty kilometers as the probe should be slow enough after that to avoid burning up."
Chad patted the underside of the probe and said "This baby is going to be fine. Tungsten has a melting temperature of well over three thousand degrees centigrade, if it gets hotter than that then the only material we could reasonably expect to survive would be hafnium carbonitride, but I don't think we have any of that on the ship." He said with a shug that made his body bob slightly in the microgravity environment.
Leon scrunched his eyebrows as he thought for a moment "Wait, what is hafnium carbonitride, and what's the difference from hafnium diboride?"
Chad looked at Sabine and she explained "Hafnium is used to make ultra high temperature ceramics, but the exact temperature those ceramics can withstand depends on the additives. Boron gives it a melting temperature of about three thousand two hundred celsius, but adding carbon and nitrogen in a carbide-nitride arrangement gives it a melting temperature of almost four thousand five hundred degrees celsius. The problem is that it's very expensive to make, so the diboride option is more commonly used as it's cheaper." She explained to him patiently.
Leon nodded as he absorbed this new information. It made sense to use the cheaper option that worked fine over the expensive option that worked better. But he sure wished they hadn't taken the cost saving measure now that they were out in the depths of space.
"Well, I'm sure glad some pencil pushing bureaucrat saved a few thousand dollars, but that nitride stuff would have been really neat right about now." Leon said grumpily.
Sabine giggled at his comment and Chad cracked a smile. This only served to make him feel grumpier about the whole situation and he started to turn away when Sabine said "So, how are things between you and Natalia?"
"Things are fine. Thanks for prying." He said.
She sighed as he shuffled away, the sound of his velcro footsteps drowning out her reply.
Leon sighed heavily as he left the airlock and entered the main hanger. His nonrelationship with Natalia was becoming common knowledge and everyone seemed to be on her side. Why was nobody thinking about it objectively like he was, maybe he just needed to find a second in command to let him relax more.
His wrist cams device beeped as he received a communication, looking down he saw a typed message from Myung that said "Leon, due to the highly tropical nature of this planet, I would like to request to be able to watch from the bridge so that I may see the alien flora first hand."
Leon moved along the edge of the hanger until he reached a foothold area and stopped. Typing a quick reply he wrote "I see no issue with that. Chad and Sabine inform me we should be ready to launch soon. I will let you know before that happens." And he sent it.
Moving on, he drifted into the main airlock and cycled through it. He debated heading to the observation deck but decided against it. He had been drifting around in microgravity for a couple of hours now and his head was starting to throb a bit. He once more said thanks to the ship's designers that had seen fit to give the ship spinning habitat rings so they had some semblance of gravity. It wasn't exactly Earth standard at only about seventy percent of a standard G, but it was enough to keep their bones and hearts from breaking down and keep them relatively healthy, albeit with some regular exercise.
Leon made up his mind, he was going to go to the gym and exercise a bit. It was a workout but it always helped him clear his thoughts.
He made his way through the ship's core and into the second ring quickly before stopping off at his room. He changed into some exercise clothes and started walking to the gym, fully planning on getting some work done.
As Leon stepped into the gym he noted that he wasn't alone. Oliver and Dr. Kimathi were at one of the bench press benches spotting for each other. The fact that Oliver and Dr. Kimathi got along so well together was a bit of a surprise to him when he had first learned about it, but watching the two of them he easily saw the connection they shared.
He put the two out of his mind and walked to one of the exercise bikes, climbing aboard he set it to medium resistance, it wouldn't do to tire himself out too much before a mission.
Leon exercised every day he could, he was older than the others at forty-four and already at a higher risk of bone density loss and muscle wasting. With the added stress of constant microgravity and the lowered gravity environment of the habitat rings, he had to make double sure to get in at least an hour and a half of exercise a day. But the more, the better.
Leon’s thoughts wandered as he worked. This whole command was wearing him down in ways he had never experienced before. What with the constant small problems and the need to be vigilant for potential disasters, he never seemed to get a moment to himself. He desperately needed a second, but who to pick? Oliver seemed like a decent choice in his mind, but the man was not necessarily the most diplomatic and tended to deal with interpersonal problems with a verbal hammer. Chris would never accept even though he was qualified for it. Maybe Myung? She was young but smart and really believed in the mission, yeah. He would keep an eye on her as they probe explored the planet, it would make a satisfactory test to see her capabilities.
With this thought in his mind, Leon climbed off the bike and wiped his face with the small towel he had brought for such a purpose. He looked to see if Oliver and Dr. Kimathi were still there and noted that they had left. He left the room and made his way to his quarters quickly where he refreshed himself and put on a clean change of clothes and some soft soled shoes.
As he was preparing to leave his cams device beeped at him and he answered the communications request.
"This is Leon, go ahead." He said precisely into the device.
After a moment's pause Sabine's voice emanated from the small speaker saying "Commander, good news, the probe is ready. Chad is loading it into the launcher now and we should be good to proceed in the next ten minutes."
Leon tilted his head back and stared at the light blue painted ceiling of his room before he answered "That is indeed good news. I will send out an alert, we will meet on the bridge in five minutes time. Tell Chad to meet with Chris in the secondary operations chamber. I want as many eyes on this as I can get." He finished.
"I will, see you there." Was all she said as the link was disconnected.
Leon nodded to himself and stepped out of his room and into the curved hall of the ship. He tapped at his wrist device and sent a brief message to all the bridge crew to meet there as well as Myung.
He had promised that she would be able to witness the events of this task firsthand. And she would be welcome to it, if something were to happen again… 'No' he told himself 'Put such thoughts out of your head'
He moved to a nearby ladder and started up it towards the core of the ship. He reached the bridge quickly and moved through the airlock to find Samuel and Terry already inside.
Samuel looked over to him as he finished putting on his void suit "Leon. So the probe is ready to go?"
Terry looked at him as he said "It is Samuel, and heavens willing it will reach the ground this time, in one piece that is." Leon added hastily. He wasn't a particularly superstitious man, but it didn't do to curse the fates that be just in case.
The other two took their seats as Leon started putting on his own void suit, as he was connecting the pressure seals on his wrists, the bridge airlock opened and Myung, Sabine, and Taylor drifted in together.
"Hey, are you ready?" Leon asked Myung as she looked at him.
She just nodded silently as she pulled on one of the spare void suits. Leon smiled and moved over to his chair before taking a seat and strapping himself down.
After everyone was seated and ready Leon checked on his console, it switched to a live feed of the secondary operations room as Chad's face appeared on the screen. The younger man smiled and said "Good to see you commander, we are green to go on your command. Chris is eager to see if this works."
Chris could be heard faintly in the background saying "I know it's going to work. I am just excited to see it work." Leon smiled as the older man complained, he sounded back to himself but Leon couldn't help but note a slight improvement in the geologist's tone.
"Alright, keep in touch, stay connected to the main feeds, If anything goes wrong I want you to start on analysis immediately. Am I clear?" Leon commanded Chad over the feed.
Chad nodded vigorously and said "Not to worry commander, we gonna to get this done. I am sure of it."
Leon smiled to him and cut the link before looking over at Sabine. She was watching him intently.
"Alright, prepare for launch, Sabine, fire at will." He said to her.
Sabine nodded and turned to her console before saying "Launching modified probe in five, four, three, two, one…" there was a slight shudder as the powerful electromagnetic launch system situated in the rear of the Leif Erikson fired its modified payload.
Sabine smiled to herself and turned to him saying "Launch was good Leon, we had to modify the power of the launcher to compensate for the increased load. Those armor plates added a significant amount of weight to the probe."
Leon nodded and asked "Taylor, how's tracking on the probe?"
Taylor checked his screens and stated "Telemetry shows the probe on course. Should be reaching atmosphere in the next thirty seconds."
Terry reached over and patted Taylors arm as he swallowed nervously. Leon looked to Sabine as she turned back to her console. She didn't seem nervous, instead she seemed very sure that they would succeed.
Leon watched the small pulsing orange dot on his own console as it passed one hundred kilometers in altitude.
"We have atmospheric contact, probe is holding on course." Taylor said a second later.
Leon watched as the dot penetrated deeper into the planet's thin outer skin. As it passed ninety kilometers Sabine spoke "Shield temperature rising sharply, well over eighteen hundred degrees and rising Leon…" she said, the earlier confidence slightly diminished as she saw the reality of the situation.
“Passing eighty five thousand meters.” Taylor said as the probe dropped deeper. “Still on course at this time.” he added.
Sabine watched the readouts intently and said with a bit of worry “Shield temperature reaching three thousand degrees.”
Leon said a quiet prayer in his mind that everything would be alright. If there was a higher power than surely they would be watching.
The probe descended past sixty kilometers and Leon began to notice that it was indeed decelerating, from almost fifteen thousand kilometers per hour as it fell towards the surface to now only thirteen. It continued to slow as it fell, the heat shield protecting the sensitive instruments inside as it plowed through the oxygen rich atmosphere of the planet. What a sight it must have been from the ground. Glowing like an ember and trailing black smoke, it must have looked like the sky itself raining down.
“Passing fifty kilometers, temperature is decreasing slowly, the extra armor worked.” Sabine said slowly, as if in disbelief.
Taylor chuckled and said “With you and Chad on it, I had no doubts about it at all.”
She gave Taylor a smile and Terry patted his shoulder as she said “That was a nice thing to say Taylor.”
He looked at her and Leon heard him whisper “It was true.”
Leon watched as the probe continued to decelerate, from thirteen to ten thousand kilometers per hour, then to nine, to eight, all the way to about eight hundred kilometers per hour.
“Nearing parachute deployment, altitude at eleven thousand meters and counting.” Sabine said as Leon watched his console feed.
Once the probe reached eight kilometers the chutes would deploy and slow it to a measly few dozen kilometers per hour in which the probes landing thrusters would take over to set it gently down on the surface.
“When the chutes deploy I want to be scanning for a clear landing site immediately. We haven't come this far to be thwarted by a god damned tree.” Leon said a bit tartly.
Sabine and Taylor both nodded and went back to watching their screens. Samuel spoke up and asked “So, when we get there, what's the next part of the plan?”
Leon was about to answer when Myung spoke up instead. “We are going to explore the surface remotely, why else would we take the time and effort to land a probe on the surface?”
Samuel just nodded as if he hadn't asked an obvious question and Leon turned back to the readouts. The probe was just reaching the eight-kilometer mark when Sabine said “Chute deployment, deployment looks good, nothing broken. We will see in ten seconds if the chutes are having the desired effect.” she finished.
True to her word she spoke again not ten seconds later. “Chutes are working, deployment is looking favorable, scanning the terrain for an obvious landing zone, though we are drifting slightly now that speed has slowed. Dropping the heat shield in fifteen seconds.” she said stoically.
Leon watched a live feed from the probe as it popped up. It was dark for a few seconds before the heat shield suddenly dropped away. It was still glowing cherry red on its underside and smoldering gently, but the additional tungsten armor had held up. Leon watched as it fell, turning to a tiny pin prick before vanishing entirely. The large expanse of green jungle below looked almost moss like from the altitude the probe was at. But they were descending rapidly.
“Probe is free, scanning for landing sites is under way. We have a slight northwestern drift, probably air currents.” Taylor said. Sabine nodded to him as they both continued to monitor the probe's progress.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Leon felt a little useless as he watched their work, he knew that his position was important, just as much so as anyone else's. But part of him would always feel a little apart from these super smart individuals. Their technical knowledge far surpassed his own, despite what he had learned since starting this journey.
“Decent is slowing, passing two thousand meters. Potential landing site observed, there is a large grassy clearing about six hundred meters to the north of us.” Taylor said.
Sabine nodded and replied “Angling boosters, we should hit it barring any unforeseen accidents.”
Leon asked “Nothing wrong I presume.”
“No, we are nominal, looking at a good clearing just ahead of the probe. Touch down in about twenty seconds, booster firing in ten.” she said with a slight amount of strain as she focused on the data.
The pulsing light was so close to the ground on his console now as to be touching. He zoomed in and watched as the altitude numbers shrank, slowly compared to the earlier decent, but still rapidly indeed.
“Thrusters engaged, parachutes dropped, probe is now on final approach… nothing we can do now but wait.” Sabine said as she sat back in her chair.
The final part of the landing was fully automated, nothing they said or did would change the outcome and so they sat in terse silence for the last ten seconds. Leon leaned forwards as the camera feed was obscured by dust and then went dark.
He sucked in a breath “What happened to the feed? Where is the probe?” he asked suddenly.
Sabine’s fingers flew rapidly over her console for a moment before the feed resumed, this time from a different angle. “The feed cut as the lower camera was obscured, we have touchdown.” she said as she let out a breath.
“Whoo!” Samuel whooped, making Leon jump slightly in his restraints.
"Alright, remind me to do something nice for Chris, Terry." Sabine said to the other woman.
Myung looked at him and asked "When do we deploy the rover?"
Leon shrugged and said "That's entirely up to Sabine, she is the primary mission controller when it comes to the technical side. But I hazard a guess that it won't be far off. They look about as curious as a herd of cats." He finished with a chuckle.
Myung cracked a small smile and apologized quickly. "I guess I am being a little impatient. But look at it, all the biodiversity!" She exclaimed.
Leon looked at the feed she was describing. It was a picture from one of the probe's external cameras, as it was facing outwards it gave a clear picture of the ground and immediately surrounding plants. Some were recognisably familiar such as grasses and small shrubs. Others were more alien in appearance or movement.
He heard Sabine say "I know Chad, isn't that great, tell Chris he is awesome. Yes, like that, I know. Hey I'm about to, yes. I plan to do just that, of course we will take it slow. Okay, bye. No, bye, Chad I need to go." Leon smiled, even though he could only hear half of the conversation, he felt reasonably sure he knew what Chad had said.
Sabine sighed and said "Alright, the probe is down safe and sound, the ground seems stable enough. I am going to initiate the rover. As long as I keep out of the deep wood cover we should have plenty of solar power."
Leon watched the screen before him as the camera switched to a multi feed from the rover's perspective. Three of the four feeds were dark, and the fourth only showed the faintest glimmer of light. But that all changed an instant later as the carapace doors that had held the rover in place opened. After a moment to make sure the rover's systems were responding nominally, she had it roll out into the open for the first time in its short life.
The cameras immediately showed an almost uninterrupted three-hundred-and-sixty-degree field of view. One hundred and eighty of the front on the top of his screen, and one hundred and eighty of the back of the rover on the bottom of his screen. The first thing he noticed was that the ground immediately around the rover was scorched black from the landing boosters of the probe. The second thing he noticed was that the ‘short’ grass was still nearly two feet tall.
Sabine made a frustrated noise as for a moment it seemed the tall grass would hamper the rover's progress. But after a moment of struggle, the rover broke free of its imprisonment and rolled forwards with the slow implacability of an avalanche.
Leon could see Myung furiously taking notes of every variety and type of plant and leaf that the rover rolled over or past. Her swift movements like those of an animal attempting to save itself from drowning. As the rover continued to drive through the field, her pace slowed as she encountered less and less new species.
Leon saw movement to the lower right and said "Sabine stop, what's that on the lower right forward feed?"
Sabine stopped the rover and squinted at the picture before tasking the aforementioned camera to focus on the small patch of movement.
Myung gasped and said "It looks almost like a giant water bug." She said with a small sound.
Leon wasn't familiar with what a giant water bug was, but it indeed looked like some sort of insect. It was large however, larger than he had ever seen a bug before. It was blunt shaped and had numerous legs, he counted at least eight appendages, the forward two being greatly enlarged like a crab without the pinchers. It was hard to reference the size due to the perspective, but it had to have been at least seventeen centimeters long.
He shuddered as the large insect scuttled away into the undergrowth. He hoped that the whole planet wasn't like that, covered in giant bugs of varying nightmarishness. 'But that would be too much to hope.' He thought to himself.
"Well, the way looks clear, let's keep on moving." Sabine said, mostly to herself as the others were rather quiet.
It didn't take long for them to leave the small clearing where the ship had landed, soon they were surrounded by trees. The trees would have looked too out of place in one of Earth's great modern rainforests, the plants were all a little off though. There were pine shaped trees with oak like leaves that were a shade too yellow. There was a thistle plant with bright red bulbs but grew to an absolutely enormous size. He saw what looked like a palm tree with bark that had the scaled texture of fish skin but the pale green color of an unripe banana.
All these discoveries and more were quickly logged and noted by Myung, she was restless and relentless. Leon watched as she replayed portions of the live feed or paused it entirely just so she could mark out an additional detail or double check a tiny fragment of information.
He nodded to himself, she might be the one to help indeed, she was dedicated and talented. What's more she was good at keeping things organized, something he wasn't naturally gifted with.
He heard Sabine exclaim before he noticed it "Whoa what in the… Leon, look at that. That's impossible…" Sabine trailed off.
He looked at the feed and took a few seconds to figure out what was going on. There was nothing on the feed except a few knobby tree trunks of a strange umber color.
"What's impossib…" he started but cut off as he observed one of the thick trees uproot itself and move in a graceful arcing motion almost a dozen meters before it slammed back down into the forest floor. The ground in the forest where they were was covered in leaf debris and small fern like plants, but little else.
He could clearly see the trees now, except they hadn't been trees. He watched in awed horror as another trunk moved in a similar fashion and direction before he blurted "What the fuck… is that!"
Myung seemed to recover from her own shock at his exclamation and waved at Sabine. Sabine tore her eyes from her screen and looked at Myung as she instructed "Pan the camera up, up higher, now!"
Leon watched in horrid fascination as the camera angle panned up the trunks. His eyes bugged as the camera finally revealed the source of the anomaly.
On the screen was the largest insect he had ever seen, it stood taller than a building, maybe as tall as twelve meters, its thin armored body connected to comparably thin and spindly legs that nevertheless were each as thick as the trunk of a small tree. The monstrosities body was thin and long, not unlike a mantis, but the chiton covering it wasn't segmented in the same fashion. It was more flexible, capable of finer movements.
"It appears to be some sort of arthropod…" Myung observed with seeming awe.
"I don't care what it is, its fucking terrifying." Taylor breathed quietly.
Leon had to agree, the beast was most likely capable of killing any of them and not even noticing, judging by its footprints it must weigh many tons.
"How is such a large creature possible?" He asked Myung.
She shook her head and said "Well, measurements place this planet's gravity a little under Earth norm and the heightened oxygen levels would make the need for the evolution of complex lungs unnecessary. I imagine this is what life on Earth would have looked like if not for several factors that dropped the oxygen levels significantly worldwide." She finished, speculatively.
Leon just nodded, accepting her explanation at face value. It seemed this world was a home to monstrous creatures indeed. And this was simply the first they had seen, what else might be uncovered with further exploration. Leon was suddenly very happy that the descent was too dangerous for the SSV's. He would be damned if they had to go face one of those things face to face.
The probe stayed still as the creature moved off into the woods, then continued onwards. More wary now that they knew what might be lurking in the shadows, Sabine rolled the rover slowly through the thick undergrowth.
"I hope the whole planet isn't covered in those terrors." Taylor said, this time louder.
Terry leaned over to him and said quietly "Aww, I know you don't like it, but there is the chance, however small, that intelligence might exist here. Not advanced or we would have found signals, but possibly primitive." While she meant well, Leon noted that this comment seemed to have the opposite effect on Taylor as he paled slightly and stiffened.
Leon decided to step in and said "This planet seems much too primitive for intelligence to have developed. And even if it did, we would have no way of contacting them. Our SSV's would never make it safely to the surface, and uparmoring them would make them too heavy to fly. It seems that as much as we want to, the surface of this planet remains unfortunately out of our reach."
Taylor seemed to relax slightly at the comment and Leon turned his attention back to the live feed as Myung made more interested noises.
Leon frowned as once more the screen showed images of giant bugs, arthropods as Myung put it. This time they were much smaller, only the size of a large herbivore. They seemed to fulfill a similar niche, grazing on the low vegetation of the forest floor. They were strange, almost Earth-like and familiar, with just enough touch of the alien to make the heart freeze and the blood turn to ice. Their multiple soulless compound eyes seemed to see in all directions at once and as they noticed the rover approaching they made high pitched screeching sounds and fled. Their strange half scuttling, half galloping motion making his stomach flutter in discomfort.
The journey through the jungle-like forest continued for some time. The signal was weak at times but the rover was capable of transmitting directly to the orbiter or even the ship at the cost of increased power consumption if the need called for it. As of yet they had not needed to use that.
Myung spoke up "This is incredible. Hundreds of new species already and many more that I couldn't determine if they were the same or different without further study. Just think of the medical and practical applications of these plants. I can't imagine the breakthroughs they could yield if only I was able to study them in person." She said wistfully.
Leon stopped her right there "Out of the question, no way. Landing is far too dangerous, not including the chance the local megafauna is hostile."
She tapped her screen, the rover pushing its way through a nest of vines laden with large purple blossoms "I know, but part of me still laments the lack of scientific discovery."
He shook his head and spoke "There will be other worlds, and this world will not be forgotten. It's possible in the future that others with more superior technology will visit this world and make all the discoveries you imagine. But for now, we must be content to observe."
She hung her head and then nodded sadly. Turning his gaze back to the screen he asked "Sabine, how is the rover holding up? I want you to turn back when the battery reaches sixty percent. Any lower and there is the possibility that the rover won't make it all the way back." He cautioned her.
Sabine nodded without turning and said in a mildly distracted voice "Yes commander, we should head west next, I think the satellite picked up a lake in that direction, well within reach of the rover."
Myung perked up at that "Oh yes, imagine the biodiversity at such a location. My, it would be wonderful…" She trailed off.
The rover feed suddenly stopped and Leon looked at Sabine. He was about to ask what happened when the forward cameras panned down to reveal a large crevasse on the ground. It seemed to lead to a vast cave network of subterranean tunnels. He jerked slightly as something massive and dark moved in one of the tunnels. Sabine immediately began to back the rover up.
"On second thought, might as well head back now." She said with a glance in his direction. He nodded and looked at the rear feed as she turned the rover around.
Except for a small movement on the undergrowth as the crevasse opened up a clearing, there was no way to tell there was anything out of the ordinary there. The trip back was relatively uneventful as they crossed the same ground they had covered to get there. The only difference was that one of the rear cameras captured some sort of large flying creature as they rounded a bend between two rocks. By the time Sabime had stopped and turned around, the creature had vanished.
As the rover broke out of the woods and into the clearing of tall grass, Leon said "Okay, that's enough excitement for one day, plus the rover will need to recharge. As it stands, you all did very well today, yes even you Samuel." He chuckled as the pilot raised a hand in question. That got a general laugh from the others, Leon continued "Dinner in about forty minutes, I expect that's plenty of time for all of you. Plus I heard that Joice is cooking tonight." His observation got a series of excited remarks at the thought of Joice's cooking.
Leon unstrapped and moved to his locker, struggling out of his void suit and placing it away, he moved into the airlock with the others. Myung was talking excitedly with Sabine and Terry, the three of them seemed mutually excited by the prospect of the planet's strange megafauna.
Samuel and Taylor nodded to him as they entered the airlock. After it cycled, they all moved their separate ways, Leon moving towards the sixth habitat ring. He checked his cams on his wrist and smiled as he saw the person he was looking for. With any luck she would remember what they had talked about the previous time they had spoken. But whether she did or not, it would be good to see her.
Leon now fully admitted the fact, while he was still loath to commit himself fully to a relationship, he could no longer hide his feelings towards Nat from himself. He descended the ladder quickly and soon found himself outside the large hydroponics section of the ship. From what he had gathered, Natalia and Joice had been up to something special and she had asked him to meet her here tonight.
Leon stopped and leaned back by the door, Natalia wasn't here yet so he decided to wait. He didn't have to wait long as the door to the hydroponics section beside him opened and he turned to see Natalia smiling at him. She was wearing a pair of work coveralls and a bandana, there were green stains on her knees and her face had dirt streaks.
"Why hello there handsome." She purred at him.
Leon smiled and said "Hello Nat. You wanted me to see something?"
"See something, yes. Come on in." She nodded.
Leon followed her in, the temperature was higher and the air was humid and full of the scents of growing things. There was the underlying hint of decay as food waste was broken down into compost and used as fertilizer for the plants. While a great many of the plants in the hydroponics were grown without soil, there were just as many that used soil exclusively.
Natalia weaved her way between the plants and pipes, Leon had a bit more trouble as he had to constantly duck under low hanging obstacles. After a few moments of this he stopped short and almost collided with Natalia as she suddenly stood still.
"Look, what do you see?" She asked him quietly, looking over her shoulder at him.
He frowned slightly and looked ahead, there was more of the same, a small open space where there seemed to be additional green, but nothing that stood out to him. He shook his head and asked "I see plants, what am I supposed to see?"
He grunted in mild surprise as she smacked him lightly in the stomach and grabbed his real hand. She pulled him forwards and he realized that they were standing in a small cleared area. He looked around in confusion, there were plants on every side, the sound of burbling water filled the air. The air was even slightly cooler and he looked up and saw a vent overhead.
His eyes widened however as he looked down. "What, how did you? Where did you even get this much grass?" He asked her as he saw that they were standing in a small grassy clearing.
She laughed musically and said "I told you me and Joice had been working hard. There was a small amount of grass seed in one of the Earth species packets in the long term storage. We broke it out and grew it into this, a little yard." She said while spinning around on the small patch of nature.
Leon noticed she was barefoot, she had kicked of her shoes when she had stopped. Leon hastily kicked off his own and stepped onto the grass bare footed. He tilted his head back and smiled with his eyes closed at the sensation. If he imagined hard he could almost picture himself in some grassy clearing in the forest back home on Earth.
He felt something touch his cheek and opened his eyes to see Natalia standing right in front of him with her arm outstretched to his face.
"I've never seen you so relaxed…" she whispered.
Leon looked into her hazel eyes and smiled widely. "I haven't felt so relaxed in a long time. Thank you Nat, for sharing this with me." He went to straighten but she stopped him with another hand.
She held him still for a moment and they looked into each other's eyes for a long moment before Leon leaned down towards her face.
He hesitated slightly but felt her gently guide his mouth to hers, the kiss was gentle, but full of passion. It seemed to stretch on into the infinite beyond. Leon's mind seemed to turn into sparks and fizzed as it went into overdrive, but he pushed it all aside and tried to just enjoy the moment. After moments, or an eternity, they broke apart. He was grinning widely now and she smirked.
Still smirking she asked him "Now that wasn't so bad was it?"
Leon just smiled at her stupidly for another moment, the taste of her lips the only thing on his mind. She asked him again before his brain kickstarted back into action. "Yeah... that was... I enjoyed it." He finished.
She giggled and pulled his arm suddenly, the added weight overbalanced him and he yelled as he fell to the deck, but the grass was soft. She fell beside him and they lay side by side for a few moments before she rolled over to kneel beside him.
Sitting up he asked "What was that for?"
She leaned down and said "When was the last time you relaxed, you are so tense."
Leon sat up and crossed his legs, leaning forwards towards her he asked "Is that what you call that? I think you just assaulted an officer."
"Oohh, did I, but what is the punishment for that?" She asked, leaning closer.
Leon looked into her eyes once more as she moved towards him "I could be persuaded to forget it, for a price."
She smiled and jumped on him again knocking him backwards, he grunted as the sudden movement caused pain in his old injuries.
Gasping and pushing herself off him she asked "Oh my, I'm so sorry Leon, I forgot…" she tried to move away but he stopped her.
He shook his head and hugged her tight "No, please. Don't go, stay. I need you Nat, more than anything else I need you."
She laid her head in the nape of his neck and whispered to him "Then I will stay, always. You are all I have ever wanted Leon."
He turned to look at her and asked simply "Why me? What have I done to deserve you?"
She just smiled and said "Nothing, and everything." Before she moved her head to kiss him again.
Leon closed his eyes and lost himself in her sweet embrace, he knew he was making a mistake to love her. But it was a mistake he could no longer bear to avoid, his very heart would break if he kept them apart any longer. And so he succumbed to her, he let himself fall willingly into her arms, and he felt happy, happier than he could ever remember feeling in his life.