I Love the Night Life

Posted on Tue Dec 20th, 2022 @ 6:54pm by Lieutenant JG Ryland Dedeker & Lieutenant Sophie Xiong

2,913 words; about a 15 minute read

Mission: Season 1 Interlude II (E5.5)
Location: Tembiti Lagoon, Risa
Timeline: ID 3

Night.

Sophie hadn't always had trouble with the sun. Her childhood had been spent mostly outside, like most kids on Ixion light- or Ixlight for short. No, her trouble with the sun hadn't started until she was about fourteen years old. At that point, she remained mostly indoors, which alienated her even further. At the academy, she had discovered night and though at first she had been overwhelmed with the darkness, she had eventually realized that she could spend time outdoors while the sun was hidden.

Thus had started her love of the night sky.

And now, of course, there was a chance to star gaze. She had found a star chart of the Risan sky at this time of year and downloaded it to her personal PADD. She was going to find a nice, quiet spot and find as many stars and planets as she could.

Quietly, she slipped out of her room and gazed out at the inky water. The sky was still orange at the horizon, but the sun was hidden. She had just enough time to find a good spot away from the lights before most of the stars would be out. Quickly, she slipped out of the cabin and began taking stock of her surroundings.

"Goin' somewhere, hot stuff?"

Ryland knew better than to sneak up on a woman in thought, but he also knew better than to stalk one too. Lesser of evils, as he always said. The teasing grin he put up was just begging for another playfight.

Sophie just about jumped out of her skin. She hadn't realized anybody had followed her. She gave Ryland her best scowl. "Don't do that!" she ordered. "I'm going outside. Obviously."

"To do what?" Ryland pressed. "It's dark out and you're headed the wrong way for the firepit." His brow shot up suspiciously. "You going off for a lil' late night rendezvous?" And then grinned mischievously. "Can I watch?"

"You're disgusting, Dedeker!" she sneered. "I'm going to watch the stars. But first I need to find a place. That bluff looks good. Wait, it's not a bluff, is it? More of a promontory. Anyway, it should be nice and dark up there pretty soon."

After he finished chuckling at his own low-brow humor, Ryland said, "Ah, it's as dark as it's going to get around here. Risa doesn't let things get spooky dark, if ya get me, 'least not where folks are liable to be. You gotta' get off the beaten path and away from the ambient lights if you want real natural night." He waved her along. "Come on. I got jiggy with a diplomat's daughter one time on the other end of the boardwalk. There's a trail not everyone knows about because it's not in the tourists' guide. Goes right up to the top of that there ridge." He paused for a moment and sighed as memories of another life washed over him. "And if I recall correctly... from up there... the stars positively sing."

On one hand, Sophie wanted to be alone so she could see the stars in peace. On the other hand, he seemed to know what he was taking about. If she believed him, that is. And that was one big if. “All right,” she relented. “Just don’t make too much noise!”

"Oh, baby, I love it when you say that!" Ryland goosed her backside with a stolen pinch and trotted off toward the thin brush. If Sophie had noticed his lapse down memory lane with fond recollections of another girl, she didn't clue him in on it. "Come on, let's go."

“It’s like traveling with a 14-year-old,” she complained to herself, but followed after Ryland anyway.

Ryland snickered as he let the fern and palm branches flip back into position, knowing they weren't thick enough to do any real harm. There was nothing hotter than an angry woman, and Sophie could be the angriest of them all. His good humor fueled his steps through the dark greenery until they came to the base of the ridge.

"All right, here's where it gets a lil' tricky." Ryland looked at Sophie to make sure she was paying attention and paused at the way the bare moonlight reflected off her dark eyes. Oh, damn. That feeling... He might be in trouble. They were only supposed to be crewmates with benefits. Not... "So, yeah, we just gotta' watch our step up the narrow switchbacks. Not too dangerous, but you gotta' keep your eyes on your footing and not my nice ass."

Sophie rolled her eyes. “As if,” she complained. If she were completely honest with herself, she would admit that Ryland’s tush was indeed nice, but she would never let him know that. Even so, she kept an eye on her feet as he suggested. “I don’t- ouch!” she exclaimed; she had slipped and landed hard on her knee. A quick assessment told her she was okay, but would probably have a nasty bruise in the morning. “I don’t suppose you the ought to being a flashlight,” she continued. “Because I forgot how dark night is.”

"Aw, shit!" Ryland sucked wind when he saw her slip. "Tell ya what..." He grabbed her about the midsection with one arm and hoisted her up onto his shoulder in a fireman's carry. "You promise not to squirm and I'll get ya safely to the top. Get naughty and I'll have to give dat ass a whack though."

“Hey!” protested Sophie sharply. “I am fully capable of walking! Put me down this instant!”

Ryland smacked her right on her tight little ass as he trotted up the switchback trail. "That's a paddlin'!"

“Cut that out!” she ordered, but she didn’t see squirm. With footing this unsure, she didn’t need him falling md dropping her off the edge or something. “I mean it, Dedeker!”

When he set her down, though, they were already at the top. "Too late!" Ryland stole a kiss from her right on the mouth. "Over here," he said, moving past her as if he'd done no such thing. "These old growths will block out the moon and make the stars really pop."

Sophie scowled, but followed him anyway. “Yeah I’m sure that’s what you want to block out,” she replied grumpily. “Definitely the moon, not other people.”

"You wanna see the stars or not?" Ryland teased. He pulled out a couple handful of fern leaves and laid them out on the rocky outlook. He laid down on the rightward one. "Don't be shy now."

“All right, all right,” she grumbled, taking her place next to him. “It’s still a little to light for them. But we can watch them come out. That’s always fun.”

Ryland slid his arm under her head before she laid down all the way and pointed upward with his other hand. "Nah, some of the bigger ones are already visible. Look, there's Orion!"

“Orion!” exclaimed Sophie sitting up immediately and reaching for her bag. “Are we that close to Earth?”

"I thought you were the smart one?" Ryland teased. "No, we're triangulated between Earth and Orion. Notice the stellar group doesn't look like a Hunter from here?"

"I'm a hobbyist, not an astronomer," Sophie pointed out, pulling her PADD out of her bag and opening the star map. She glanced to where Ryland was pointing. "It doesn't look like a Hunter from Earth, either," she replied. "Oh, yeah, I see the belt. He's sort of tilted towards us a bit."

Ryland chuckled at her pedantry. "Oh, trust me, I know my hunters. Used to be one, back in my wing commander days." When he looked back up at the sky, he was reliving more memories, but this time they were of the thrill from piloting a starfighter at half the speed of light around a moon to attack an Orion raider. Feelings of that old life tormented the man he was today: war high, the danger, the brotherhood, the mission. But now... he was Mrazak's toady, bound to him by a corrupt handshake. "They're a lot bigger up close," he muttered.

“What are?” asked Sophie absently. She hadn’t been paying very close attention as she scanned the sky and her Star chart. “The stars?”

"Yeah..." He laughed again as he scanned the sky. "See that one there? There's a little one behind it that's not visible from here. The nerds say it's a little guy, but he was larger than life up close and personal. I skimmed the surface of that little dwarf sun in a hotshot maneuver." Letting out a sigh, Ryland went on. "Bridge duty can't never compare to getting nuked inside a cockpit, praying the rad shielding holds while the inertial dampeners scream like a cat in heat as you tell Newton's laws of physics to fuck off long enough to send a torpedo straight up the ass of a bogey not 100 meters at your 12."

“Yeah, that sounds like so much fun,” replied Sophie dryly. “I’m trying to find Ixion. It should be visible soon, just over the horizon. Over in that direction,” she said, pointing to their left. She moved the PADD to follow Orion and then dipped it slowly. The stars moved and good old Ix showed up after only a centimeter or so, right on the edge. “Any minute now,” she muttered.

Sneering a bit, Ryland asked, "Is everyone on Ixion a stone-cold bitch or did I just win the jackpot?"

“Just lucky, I guess,” replied Sophie, too enthralled in her task to rise to his bait. Plus, she knew she was a bitch. In fact, she was quite proud of that fact.

"You're the lucky one," Ryland shot back. "If you weren't such a hot lay, nobody would talk to you."

“Then why are you even here!” she snapped, glaring at him. “If you hate me so much, why do you stick around?”

"Because maybe I don't hate you!" He looked at her, wondering if she was that stupid. "Maybe I carried your cantankerous ass up here because, for some crazy reason I'll never understand, I like you. I like you!"

“Well, I like you, too!” she replied crossly. “So why are you yelling at me?”

Ryland huffed after not knowing what to say. "I don't know!" And the admission made him pout. "You really piss me off sometimes and I can't think of anything else!"

“Yeah, well,” replied Sophie, going back to her PADD. “Sometimes you piss me off, too.” The thought occurred to her that this was probably the closest she had ever gotten to talking about her feelings. She shoved the thought aside, the though. There were more important things right now. Like finding Ixion. “Have you ever been to Ixion?” she asked idly, not knowing what else to talk about and not wanting to shout any more.

"Did a fly-by on maneuvers through that sector, I think." Ryland scratched his chin. "It's got some weird stars, right?"

"The star is fairly normal," shrugged Sophie. "It's Ixion 2, where I grew up, that's totally weird. It only rotates once per year, which means that one side always faces the sun and one side always faces away. I grew up on the light side. It's hot there- usually 35 to 40 degrees- but you get used to it. Especially if you were born there. I was so cold at the Academy. It was miserable."

"Must be why it's so easy to get you naked when the heat turns up," Ryland quipped. "Never did touch dirt in the Ixion sector. Didn't know there was anything there at the time worth seeing."

"It's not an easy planet to visit," replied Sophie. "Ixlight is hot and humid and bright and Ixdark is cold and dry and dark. And our environmental systems don't really keep the indoors at what you would call a comfortable temperature. We only cooled our homes to about 30 degrees. And Ixdark only heated to about 15. Plus the whole planet is full of botanists and little else."

Ryland shrugged. "Weird." Searching the sky, he idly asked, "So you ever wanna' go back?"

"Probably," replied Sophie. "When it's time to retire." She was silent for a moment. "You ever want to go back home?" she asked.

"Ain't got one," Ryland said flatly. "I was born on the family freighter during a layover on a colony from a long line of space boomers. Pirates killed my father, scuttled the ship, would've enslaved the rest of us if not for a Starfleet patrol."

"Oh, wow, that's awful," replied Sophie. It might have sounded dispassionate, but she sincerely meant it. And she couldn't think of anything else to say, so she checked for Ixion, but it still wasn't visible.

"Meh, it is what it is," Ryland said dismissively of his own pain. "Ma didn't last long without Pops. My brother turned into the biggest fucking asshole you never did meet. My sis turned out alright; pulled my bacon out of the fire a time or two. I guess that just leaves me."

“I’d say you did pretty well,” replied Sophie. “Starfleet. That’s something, anyway.” And it was, but for reasons she couldn’t fathom, just the name of the organization irritated her. She dismissed the feeling as irrelevant. “Do you ever miss them?” she asked.

Ryland shrugged again. "Sometimes. Life isn't about looking back though. It's about looking forward." Then he let out a sigh. "Which is actually really fuckin' depressing. I don't know what all I got to look forward to in this Memory Theta outfit. Gruesome death and disfigurement maybe?"

“What a cheerful thought,” replied Sophie dryly. “I’ve been thinking it was a mistake accepting the offer. I don’t know why, but this whole job feels like a dead end. How early can I get away with early retirement?”

"I don't think people retire from our post, love. More like medical discharge." Ryland clicked his tongue. "If you get cut in half, I'll still keep you. The bottom half, at least."

“You’re disgusting,” she informed him, but her voices lacked the proper ire necessary for such a statement.

"Yeah, but you let me fuck you on the regular," Ryland said. "What's that make you? Missus Disgusting?"

“It’s not like we’re married,” replied Sophie, disgruntled. “It just makes me a girl who likes your flavor.”

Ryland gave a lurid chuckle. "Yeah, you do." But after the chuckle faded, he asked, "You ever think about that? Settlin' down and whatnot?"

“Not really,” she admitted. “I’m not against it. I’ve just never thought about it.”

"Heh. Yeah, me neither," Ryland said. "Can you imagine though? Me a family man? 'Junior, cut the shit!'" Letting out another chuckle that felt a little dejected, he said, "Yeah, poor kid wouldn't deserve that."

Sophie grinned slightly. “You have no idea if you’d make a good parent until you actually have a kid,” she replied. “Or at least that’s what my mother always said. I have no idea if she’s right or not. Anyway, you never know. You might be brilliant at it.”

That... that was maybe the nicest thing she had said to him. Or anybody had said to him, for that matter. Ryland didn't know what to say. He was a dog of a man, a dirty flyboy, a disgraced officer with nothing to live for and nothing to lose. Him--a good father? "Heh. You really think so?"

"Maybe," she replied with a shrug. "You could just as easily be terrible. It's kinda like Schrödinger's Cat. Both there and not until you open the box."

"Yeah..." The truth didn't hurt because it was still not as harsh as the view Ryland secretly kept of himself. "None of that matters though. I got no one to have kids with, so no sense in worrying about it."

Sophie shrugged. She would never admit it- not even to herself, but that stung a little. “Doesn’t mean you never will,” she pointed out. “Oh! Look!” she exclaimed, pointing to the spot on the horizon where a bright star shown. “I think that’s Ixion!” She grabbed her PADD and pointed it at the horizon. “Yes! That’s it!”

"Well, look at that," Ryland said with a wan smile. "No place like home, huh?"

Truth be told, Sophie hadn’t felt at home on Ixlight since she had started burning so easily. It felt like the planet had turned on her. Leaving for the academy only solidified that feeling. But finding it in the night aky always made her feel like she knew where she was. “I suppose so,” she admitted dryly. “But I can think of many better places to be.”

"You and me both," said Ryland. He wasn't looking at the stars. He only had eyes for Sophie.

Sophie frowned at him. “Are you drunk?” she demanded.

"I must be," Ryland said sarcastically. He narrowed his eyes at her for a moment and then just shook his head and scoffed. "I found us a snazzy walking tour of some underground gardens. Meet me there tomorrow." He let out a grunt as he got to his feet. "Or don't. Either way I'll catch you on the flip side, Starlight Princess."

“Okay,” she replied, going back to her star chart.

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