LMS VII: we who knew the sun

ADELAIDE
As Riley made himself comfortable, Adelaide busied herself by making their drinks. It wasn’t a complicated task. They were each having the same thing –- an old cocktail Adelaide liked that a former roommate was said to have invented.
Allegedly, Adelaide thought. She hadn’t liked that roommate. That entire situation had ended rather explosively if she was remembering correctly.
It didn’t matter now.
Dubious origin aside, Adelaide could admit that the drink was refreshing. That was how Riley had described it when he’d tried it for the first time, all those years ago.
Adelaide let out a breath and finished mixing up the drinks. It still didn’t matter. She was getting too in her head about this. Ugh..
She turned to store the perishable ingredients away. The rest of the clean up could wait. Adelaide passed Riley his glass.
He took it with a quiet “Thanks,” and waited for her to sit down before tasting it. “Huh,” he sounded a little bit surprised. “This is different.”
Adelaide nodded and took a drink. “Unfortunately--” she began to say, drawing out each syllable. “I couldn’t source the agave.”
“Bummer,” Riley said. “I know how much you like that stuff.”
Adelaide nodded solemnly. She truly did mourn her agave stash, but with the way the climate was changing, it couldn’t be helped. They were lucky to have what they did.
Another sip. “What’d you use instead? It’s not bad.”
“Honey syrup,” Adelaide said. Seeing the look on Riley’s face she added, “Equal parts honey and hot water. It isn’t ideal but it works over ice if it’s cooled properly.”
“Clever.”
Adelaide looked at Riley out of the corner of her eyes. She wasn’t not smiling. “An old trick from my barista days.”
She’d been an undergrad then, still studying for her Bachelor’s degree. The job was awful but Adelaide had liked her coworkers, and had even been a bridesmaid at one of their weddings... It felt like such a long time ago. Adelaide couldn’t remember when they had all lost touch.
Riley seemed to be thinking the same thing. He had that look on his face again. Pensive, not quite sad. (Yet.)
Adelaide took another sip of her drink, then set it down atop the coaster. “So,” she said. “How was your day? Business aside, I mean.”
“We both know you get the reports,” Riley said. He was smiling again. “It was… I dunno. I kept thinking about my sister and Evangeline. I just wish we knew what they were up to.”
Adelaide said nothing.
“I know they’re safe. It’s not that I don’t trust your sources, I do. I just—” Riley cut himself off with a sigh. “I miss them.”
Adelaide’s eyes stung. Again she was silent. There was a lump in her throat, threatening to spill.
She’d never met Saoirse. There were nothing for her to miss. But Christ, Adelaide wished she could be there with her. The worry was eating her alive.
“Me too,” Adelaide said. Her voice was quiet, unsteady. She sniffled and set her drink aside, rubbing at her eyes. “Just a few more days,” she said.
As if that would make her feel any better.
---.
The evening had been pleasant, but neither of them were naive enough to think it could last -- Riley had an early pre-dawn shift and Adelaide didn’t, for once. He slipped out in the early hours of the day. No matter how reluctant they were to part the fact of the matter was that she needed the sleep.
Adelaide tried to sleep. She really did. But she was tense and lonely and worried, and no amount of deep breathing or counting sheep was enough to fix it.
It was hard enough for her to relax enough to lay down, let alone drift off, and when sleep did take her it was restless. She awoke feeling more tired than she’d been before laying down.
“Ugh,” Adelaide grimaced and preemptively silenced her alarm. There were more to come. She held off on silencing those too. It was unlikely that she’d fall back asleep but it didn’t hurt to be prepared.
Standing up, Adelaide went about preparing for the day ahead.
Normally, she had her morning routine down to a science. It was quick and methodical, though not quite thorough enough to be satisfying -- her time spent away had seen to that.
But Adelaide was up early and she had the time to spare. She let herself linger for a little while, settling down on her couch to read the book she’d been neglecting. It was an old fantasy novel Evangeline had enjoyed.
Was it bittersweet to read it without her? Of course it was. But she could at least take solace in the fact that her daughter had taste. The book was surprisingly well written. She was almost reluctant to put it down. Unfortunately, there were things she had to get done.

Evangeline
The hotel was near enough to the highway that Evangeline could still hear the traffic. It wasn’t loud, not really. But it was strange. Evangeline could feel the traffic almost as much as she could hear it – from the soft rumble of the cars to the louder shakes of a truck catching the raised lines along the edge of a lane.
She didn’t entirely hate that.
No, that was reserved for the honking. Ugh. Evangeline hated the honking.
Her aunt and cousins slept soundly nearby. At least none of them were snoring tonight. Evangeline was glad for that and not just because she and Lily were sharing a bed.
Evangeline rolled over onto her side. She was facing the window now.
She couldn’t see many stars -- there were too many buildings and cars around for that. The moon, though, was high in the sky. It looked like a waning gibbous. Evangeline couldn’t quite tell. Her glasses were on the night-stand.
She lifted her head and narrowed her eyes a bit. Hm... Yeah, that was definitely a waning gibbous.
Evangeline sighed and dropped her head back against the pillow. Being planet-side was so strange. Everything seemed so far away.

Evangeline
Everything was so far away. But it was the same moon she had always known, and Evangeline found herself staring at it for quite some time.

She couldn’t make out any specific geographical details like she might’ve been able to back home -- the window filtered things in a strange way that made everything blurry. Maybe it was the darkness or the light. Maybe it was the glass. Squinting her eyes didn’t help. Evangeline could’ve been orbiting the moon itself and things still would’ve looked smudged.

She rolled onto her other side. Her cousin was still asleep, still blissfully silent. Evangeline watched her for a moment. Lily looked kinder when she was asleep. Her hair was fanned out on the pillow beneath her. She’d need to brush it when she woke up. Evangeline could already see the knots starting to form.

She’d braided her own hair before bed. Not that it would do much. It was an uneven, messy braid. Evangeline had a habit of tossing and turning in her sleep. Her mother was the only one who ever did the braids in a way that would stay in.

A lump formed in the back of Evangeline’s throat. Everything would have been so much easier if here mother was here. Her aunt tried, but it just wasn’t the same. Evangeline didn’t like her. She barely even trusted her.

Evangeline rolled back to face the window. She looked at the moon for a moment, imagining she was back home with the stars and the sounds of the ship around her, moving and breathing like a living animal. It offered some small comfort.

She closed her eyes and started to count backwards by seven. It was an old trick Bishop had taught her. Methodical and lulling, she didn’t have to think much to do it, and after a few minutes of counting Evangeline’s eyelids started to feel heavy. She took a deep breath and let them close.

It was safe here. She was safe here. The door and windows were locked. There was another bed (and several people) between herself, Lily, and the door. There was nothing to worry about.

The silence told her otherwise. Evangeline focused on the distant rumble of the highway and closed her eyes tighter. Sleep did not find her easily.

---

She woke early the next day. Evangeline was roused by someone shaking her shoulder. She swatted them away, grumbling out an irritated, “I’m up, I’m up!” The alarm clock blared in the background. Evangeline rubbed at her eyes and sat up, yawning before she could stop it.

“Rise and shine,” Aunt AUNTNAME said. She was already dressed and ready, and was corralling Evangeline’s cousins towards the sink to brush their teeth.

Evangeline got up and grabbed her own toothbrush. She didn’t need to change. Sleeping in her clothes made things easier for her in the mornings, no matter how much it annoyed her aunt. (Though for what reason, Evangeline didn’t know. Most things seemed to annoy her.)

She brushed her teeth and rinsed her mouth with some water from the sink.

Lily was by the bed when she returned. Her braid had fallen out in the night and she was redoing it. “G’morning, Evie.”

Evangeline let out a sound that might’ve been speech. Great. She hadn’t even been awake ten minutes and Lily was already annoying her. She told herself it wasn’t because of the nickname. Bishop liked to call her the same thing -- she didn’t mind it, she couldn’t.

Lily turned away from her. “Mom,” she said, powering through a yawn. “What are we gonna do for breakfast?”

Evangeline’s stomach gave an uneasy lurch. It was too early for her to even think about food. She was already nauseous enough.

Her aunt zipped up one of their bags. “There’s a FRANCHISENAME at the next rest stop,” she said, adding quickly. “We have snacks in the car. They can hold you over until then.”

Evangeline turned away from her cousins and grabbed the comb from her bag, focusing her attention on untangling her hair.

Lily sighed. Carter grumbled something on the other end of the room that Evangeline didn’t catch, but he didn’t argue. None of them did; it was too early.

Evangeline helped her cousins pack up their bags and together they dragged them out to the car for her aunt to load in.

She wouldn’t have minded doing it herself. But Lily and Carter had taken one look at her efforts and had shaken their heads without so much as missing a beat.
Apparently, Aunt AUNTSNAME was the only one who could pack them right – at least according to the woman herself.

That first night must have been a fluke, Evangeline thought bitterly.

She kicked petulantly at the asphalt and opened the car door, then climbed in to slump into her seat without a word. Her cousins filed in a moment later. (Lily was in the passenger’s seat this time.) (Evangeline could almost breathe a sigh of relief.)

Ugh. It would have been nice to do something for herself. She missed being able to do things on her own. She missed being trusted to do things on her own. Her aunt never let her out of her sight for long. Was she afraid Evangeline was going to try and run?

It was a tempting thought. One that Evangeline turned over in her head, picking at it like an itching scab. It was a stupid idea. She knew it was a stupid idea, but it sounded better and better the longer she spent in this damn car. Evangeline had to remind herself that she couldn’t. She was safe here. Annoyed, sure. (Definitely. More than she had ever been in her life.) But safe.

The driver’s side door opened and Aunt AUNTSNAME stepped in. She buckled her seat belt and closed it behind, before turning around and gesturing for the rest of them to buckle up.

Evangeline obliged. She leaned her head against the window and glared out at the parking lot.

“Everybody ready?” Her aunt asked, far too enthusiastic for so early in the morning.

Lily and Carter grumbled out a response.

“Yeah, me neither,” Aunt AUNTSNAME turned back around. “Don’t worry, we’ll get some food in you guys in a bit.” She turned the ignition and the engine rumbled to life.

“Pass me the snack bag?” Lily asked.

Right. It was in the back row. Evangeline reached behind her seat and grabbed it, only a little put off by the car’s movements. After a life of gravity fluctuations, it wasn’t so disorienting. She grabbed an orange for herself and passed the bag forward.

Evangeline

Lily took it with a quiet, “Thanks.” She rummaged through the bag for a minute without grabbing anything, then passed it back to Evangeline, who took it without a word.

Must not be hungry, Evangeline thought. She tossed the bag into the backseat. It wasn’t like she could blame Lily for not having an appetite. They’d been eating the same things for the past few days. Snack food, mostly. Candy and chips and whatever shriveled fruit they could scrounge up. It was getting old. (It had been old for awhile.)

Evangeline sighed and split off half of her orange. She nudged Lily’s shoulder and held it out without a word.

Lily turned around. “Oh,” she said. But she took the halved orange, peeled off a slice, and popped it in her mouth. “Thanks, Evie.”

There it was -- that nickname again.

“You’re welcome,” Evangeline leaned back in her seat. She didn’t have the energy to even be annoyed about it right now. Well. Maybe she did. But she was definitely too tired to deal with it.

She ate a slice of her own orange. It was good to have something that could pass for fresh. She missed the food back home. The aquaponics lab grew the best fruit…

Evangeline closed her eyes and pressed her face against the window. She would have killed for some strawberries. Or even just some tomatoes. Stars, she missed the tomatoes. She would never complain about them again, even if her mom never did slice them right.

Evangeline closed her eyes tighter. She didn’t want to think about it. She did not want to think about it.

“How much longer ‘til we stop?” Carter asked. If he was trying to keep the whine out of his voice it was not working.

“Yeah,” Lily added. “I’m hungry too.”

Evangeline heard her aunt sigh.

“Soon,” she said. “There’s a Crackle Barrel at the next exit. Just need to get through this bit of traffic.”

Lily and Carter groaned, and Evangeline couldn’t help but join them. She was hungry too. It was starting to get annoying. Didn’t help that the car was moving so slow it might as well have been stopped.

“I don’t know what else to tell you,” her aunt said. “At least we’re moving.”

They were not, in fact, moving. In the time it had taken her to finish her sentence, traffic had come to a standstill. To make matters worse, Evangeline could hear sirens in the distance, growing louder and louder as the seconds ticked by. “Maybe there’s an accident,” she said.

“I hope not,” her aunt sighed. “I don’t want to get stuck right now, either. Let’s hope someone’s car just broke down.”

Evangeline frowned. That didn’t sound like a good thing either, but she supposed her aunt was right. She just hoped they could get past it quick – whatever it was.


Adelaide

Another day, another slew of meetings.

Adelaide kept a blank face as she exited her office. Several of her colleagues were waiting outside. Probably hoping that she would have a moment to talk.

Not a chance, Adelaide thought. Her day had only just begun and it already felt as if she was running out of time. How on Earth had she managed this before? Spite and desperation, her brain supplied. Hard to lose focus when the planet is dying.

Right. She just had to stay focused and keep her goal in mind. It was a race, not a sprint. Or whatever Bishop liked to say.

Speaking of--

Adelaide rounded a corner and nearly collided with her old friend.

“Ada!”

“Dr. BISHOPLASTNAME,”

“Ada, please. You know you can--”

Adelaide sighed. She was smiling despite herself. “I guess there’s no use in pretending we don’t know one another,” she said. The unlike Riley, went unspoken. “It’s good to see you too, Bishop. I’m sorry I haven’t been to see you lately.”

“I mean, I won’t pretend it didn’t hurt,” Bishop said, not unkindly. “But I get it. You’re busy. And you send bribes.”

“I’m glad the candy was to your liking,” Adelaide said. She felt as if a weight had lifted off her chest. “Walk with me?”

“Sure,” Bishop said. “Where we headed?”

“C-Deck. Not too far.”

Bishop nodded and fell into step beside her. Their crutches clicked quietly on the deck.

“How have you been feeling?” Adelaide asked.

“Tired,” Bishop said. “And overwhelmed.”

“It’s been an adjustment.”
“I’m surprised to see you out and about so soon,” Bishop said, side-stepping a drainage grate. “No offense.”

“The med-bay was too quiet.”

“Ugh, agreed.”

“Have they assigned you a room?”

Bishop nodded. “It’s a few doors down from Carver’s. I’m surprised we haven’t ran into one another.”

“I keep odd hours, you know that.”

“So do I.”

They lapsed into silence. Just the waves, the ship, the click of Bishop’s footsteps. Adelaide didn’t mind. It was not entirely unpleasant.

“We almost there?”

“Yes.”

“I won’t see you for a while, will I?”

“I doubt it. They haven’t been giving me much breathing room.”

“Ah, okay,” Bishop frowned. “I’m sorry for being blunt, but-”

Adelaide tilted her head closer.

“Evie isn’t here?”

“No,” Adelaide said. “We’re working on bringing her here, but-”

“--She’s safe?”

Adelaide nodded. “She’s with her aunt.”

Bishop breathed a sigh of relief. “I didn’t know you had a sister,” they said, quietly.

“I don’t.”

“You’re getting her soon?”

“As soon as I’m able to. I miss her too.”

A hurt look crossed Bishop’s face. “I never doubted that, Ada.”

Adelaide sighed. “I didn’t think you did.”

“Will you keep me posted?”

Adelaide kept walking. She couldn’t promise anything yet.

“At least tell me when she’s here. I hate to think how overwhelming this place will be. It might help to see a familiar face.”

“I’ll try to,” Adelaide said. “Things are still unpredictable. Lots of moving pieces.”

“Right,” Bishop said. “Guess that’s as close to a ‘yes’ as I’m going to get.”

Adelaide let out a quiet laugh almost despite herself. She had started to miss Bishop’s snark. “You’re probably right,” she said.

“I usually am.”

“Sure, Bishop.”

They let out a quiet laugh. “Hey, I’ll take what I can get.”