Board Thread:The Mech Bay Bar'n'Grill/@comment-24866242-20140514220513/@comment-24866242-20140518012049

Ben watched the view of Galiese slowly growing larger through the window in their quarters from the sofa. Sandra was nestled against him, breathing rhythmically. His arm had long since fallen asleep but he didn’t want to wake her back up just yet.

LaeAnne had given the band of survivors a block of quarters on the port side of the ship. Ben had taken Chaz’s advice to heart and asked her for three suites. The Pallins, Chico and Jeff, and for him and Sandra. Sandy hadn’t said a word, but she had held his hand the entire trip through the ship to their room. Jarrid, Jeff and Chico showed no surprise, but Marissa beamed at them the whole way down. Little Becky was oblivious and had run forward to hold Sandy’s other hand while she gawked at the aliens in the halls.

They had gotten a few hours of much needed sleep while Vextis finished transferring equipment to the Minnow and during the first part of the short trip home. They woke up with about an hour left in the trip when the light reflecting from Galiese's surface started pouring into the bedroom. Galiese was still small at that point, about half the size of the full moon, but it was the first planet light they had seen in years.

A few minutes were spent getting dressed and cleaned, then some breakfast had been ordered from the replicator. They had sat down on the sofa to watch the planet grow larger and Sandy had quickly dozed back to sleep. The half eaten food sat on the coffee table in front of them and Ben sipped at lukewarm coffee.

The planet was close enough now that he could identify familiar landmarks. The Doomlands were below them now. Ben idly wondered who lived there these days. Land changed hands at the drop of a hat on this world. Unoccupied space was unlikely to remain unoccupied for long. Perhaps it had been carved up into smaller parcels.

Slipping below the horizon to the west was the new area that they had claimed. They were too high to make out the little island where Kat had placed the Bar’n’Grill after the move, but LaeAnne had said it was still there.

The intercom chimed softly and Sandra stirred a bit next to him. “Go ahead,” he answered.

“I thought you would like to know we just entered shuttle range,” LaeAnne’s voice didn’t seem to come from any speaker system that he could identify. It sounded as though she was standing right next to them. “Don’t feel like you need to move out though. Vextis will be in orbit for a while, and you’re family.”

“Thanks, LaeAnne,” he said. “I’m sure we could all use some fresh air.”

“I’d imagine so. Rah is letting the rest of your group know. Our shuttles are at your disposal. Head down whenever you like.” Another soft chime signaled the end of the conversation.

Ben glanced down and saw Sandra looking up at him, a smile on her lips. “Feel like going down with me?” he asked her.

“Hmmm… No.” She answered. “This place was never really home for me, and you’ve got things to do by yourself, I think.” She gave him a quick kiss then sat up and gathered the dishes. “I’ll come find you later,” she assured him. “I’ve got to call my family back home and explain where I’ve been for the last ten years.”

Ben nodded and stretched, flexing his fingers as the blood rushed back into his left arm. He stood and turned around to see that Sandra had stopped just short of the replicator, the dirty dishes still in her hands.

“I’ve got to call Jim’s family too,” she said.

Ben sighed. Not all of them were coming back from the dead after all. “I should do that,” he said. “I was the captain.”

“No,” she put the dishes into the replicator and the quickly disappeared. “You should do the others, but I know them. It will be better for them to hear from me. We were a team.”

Ben nodded and she brushed her hands against each other and smiled at him, letting him know it was okay. They had all had years to get over the loss of the Colorado and her crew. Later she would shed some tears with Jim’s parents, and when he saw her again she would be back to her old self.

He left everything in the room and walked to the nearest hangar bay.

____________________________

The shuttle took off almost immediately after it deposited him outside the north entrance to the B’n’G. Ben immediately stuffed his hands into the pockets of his battered field jacket and shivered a bit in the weather, even as he shielded his eyes from the bright light. It was a cloudy day, but he hadn’t been planetside in years, and his eyes weren’t used to it. It was late spring, but the mountain lake was at twenty-five hundred meters altitude and it was a chilly day.

The building was familiar and was probably the closest thing he had to a home on the planet. He had a cabin a couple of kilometers away on the other side of the little bay, but he would wait to see what kind of shape it was in. It had sat empty for ten years now and probably wasn’t habitable. In any case, this had to be his first stop. This is where Kat was.

He pulled open the double doors and stepped inside. The large clamshell mech bay doors on the south side of the building were open, he realized, and music was blasting in the large chamber. Immediately to his right the bar-flap was propped open and he ducked behind the counter to grab a beer. After popping the cap he made his way past the bar stools and the tables and leaned against the wall looking out into the mech bay.

There was Kat. Well, the lower half of her anyway. The top half was hidden from view behind the hood of an old Earth car. He walked out and smiled at the sound of her voice singing along with the music. He made his way around the maintenance pit in the center of the room and went around to the other side of the car to see what she was working on.

She still hadn’t noticed him so he took a swig of beer and set it on the front edge of the engine compartment and leaned in under the hood on the opposite side of the car. He would pay for this… “Have you checked the carburetor yet?”