The Solar Wind (13 page)

“We’ve all sensed Bryant’s energy today, we should be able to feel it if he comes near us again,” Andre added.

“That’s true,” Naomi agreed.

“I’m not worried about Bryant attacking us. I’m more worried about who he’s friends with these days,” Wesley said.

“You don’t think he would mention something like this to Xavier do you? We haven’t seen him in over ten years, who knows what he’s doing now. What if he found out about Ava?” Justin said.

“I doubt Bryant would purposely seek him out. If Xavier was around I would certainly know about it. We simply can’t let
him
find out about Ava, that could be disastrous.”

In the end, the group decided to continue their plans for the remainder of the weekend, keeping out a vigilant eye and awareness for Bryant.  Wesley decided it would be best to keep Ava away from the shopping district in case Bryant decided to look for them there again. He would stay with Ava, along with Mia, Ash, and Rowan while Naomi, Andre, and Justin would go about their own business, looking out for their unwelcome former crewmember.

In the morning Ava met some of the group in the dining hall for breakfast around 9 a.m. “Good morning everyone.”

“Morning Ava,” Mia replied. “Are you ready for more sight-seeing?”

“Absolutely, Capri is so vibrant and interesting compared to Orionis. I think I will be sad to leave. What are the plans for today?”

“Be prepared for lots of walking,” Rowan said cheerfully as she sat Ava’s breakfast down in front of her.

“Thank you Rowan, I could have gotten that.”

“No problem. First we are going to see the Capristine Art Gallery. They have all kinds of artwork from Earth’s most famous artists over the centuries. After that we will be heading to the theatre district to see an opera. They are usually pretty good on Capri. Finally we will all meet up for dinner at Crescent Moon, one of the more romantic restaurants this station has to offer.”

“We are all meeting for dinner, you mean not everyone is going to the art gallery?”

“Well, Naomi, Andre, and Justin have a few things they wanted to take care of while we are here. They’ve seen it before. We’ll see, they may or may not join us for the opera. Wesley will be with us all day.”

“I wouldn’t miss this day for anything.” Wesley remarked as he sat down with his breakfast next to Ava. “I hardly ever get to spend an entire day with you.”

“Good morning Wesley. It sounds like it’s going to be an awesome day. Did you have a restful night?” She asked.

“Very restful,” he smiled, reassuringly.

The activities of the day began as planned. At the art gallery Wesley and Ava broke off from the others and wandered around observing the various types of art that had been transported here from Earth to preserve them extinction. Wesley proudly informed Ava that he and his crew had been responsible for the safe transport of many of the works on display here. Of course he and his crew had been to the gallery many times before over the years. He was excited to share this visit with Ava, who was seeing these impressive works for the first time. He treasured the reactions and on her face as she viewed each piece. As their time in the gallery neared the end, Wesley gently took Ava’s hand and led her to see some of his favorite works before they left.

             
The others did not join Ava’s group for the opera, but they still had a wonderful time. Despite the lyrics being sung in Italian, Ava was amazed by the acoustics and how beautiful everything from the vocals to the costumes were. Afterwards everyone met outside the entrance to the restaurant. Rowan picked this romantic Italian spot to compliment the opera and it worked beautifully. It surprised Ava to see how many people of the general public seemed out and about and able to afford to eat in restaurants, a complete opposite of Orionis. Wesley wrapped one arm around Ava as they began the long walk back to the hangar.

             
The activities of the day wore Ava out. She went to bed and fell asleep quickly but it did not last long. She awoke abruptly in a sweat. Ava seldom remembered her dreams, only when she woke during them, however this had been a nightmare. She had been running down a dark passageway in the lower levels of Orionis, the shrieking alien hot on her trail when she tripped over something, what seemed to be a body. She paused to see who it was and gasped as she recognized the body as Helena. As she peered over her lost friend, the alien crept up over her from behind as it prepared to strike. Now it was too late. As she realized what was happening, she woke up. Her heart pounded for several minutes, she knew she would not find sleep again easily for a while. What a weird dream. After Nathan’s death Ava stopped trying to make sense of her dreams, or nightmares. Ava glanced at the clock, 2 a.m. The dinner they had earlier was delicious, but also high in sodium. Thirsty, she decided to throw on some clothes and head to the dining hall for a glass of water.

             
Ava found the dining hall easily as the hallways were always adequately lit, even if a little less during non-waking hours. The ship was still, only the ever present faint hum existed.  Ava drank a full refreshing glass and refilled.

             
“Ava?”

             
Ava jumped slightly, spilling a little of the water on herself. She thought she was alone. “Wesley, I’m sorry, I hope I didn’t wake you.”

             
“No, no, no. I was in the flight deck reviewing some of the details for our departure in a few hours. I was just about to turn in and I heard you come up. Are you Okay?”

             
“Yes, I’m fine. Just a bad dream that’s all. Then I was thirsty.”

             
“Yeah, I think the food was a little heavy on the salt tonight.” He smiled as he reached to get his own glass of water. “Do you want to stay up for a little while.”

             
“Sure. I don’t think I’ll be able to fall asleep soon anyway, now that I’m fully awake.” They made their way towards one of the smaller tables in the room and sat down, facing each other.

             
“What was your dream about?”

             
Ava proceeded to tell him about it, feeling silly. “I’m not sure why I would dream something like that.”

             
“Well, you are away from your home and you are sleeping in a strange bed, plus you had two glasses of wine tonight. I think the alien was from the virtual reality game the other night.” He smiled.

             
She laughed lightly. Wesley could always say the right thing to put her at ease. “You are so lucky, you know.”

             
“Why do you say that?” He looked surprised.

             
“Because you own this amazing starship and you have the freedom to go anywhere and do whatever you feel like doing. You are not locked into eating the same food, seeing the same people, and doing the same routine every day.”

             
“I don’t know. Believe it or not, this gets to be pretty routine after a while.” He shrugged. “And I do see the same people every day,” he laughed gently. “Space travel can be dangerous if you don’t know what you are doing. The work that we do is not always easy. Some of it involves a lot of back-breaking labor actually. Plus we have to deal with a lot of overly strict security guards and let me tell you, many of them can be, let’s just say, difficult to work with.”

             
Ava sometimes suffered from low self esteem episodes and occasionally wondered what this successful, well travelled, handsome man saw in her that kept him coming back. It all seemed too good to be true. “Wesley, I know you’ve mentioned that you have never been married, but did you ever have someone special, a girlfriend?”

             
“I’ve worked hard to be where I am at. I have never had much time for that sort of thing, especially with my unpredictable schedule. There have been women that I have liked, but nothing really serious.”

             
“Do you have friends like me, women on other stations, that you spend time with also.”

             
“No.” He sensed where she was going with this. He took one of her hands in both of his. Ava noticed that slight electric sensation, then it faded away. “There’s no-one else like you Ava.”

             
“Wesley, sometimes when we touch, I don’t know, it’s almost like I feel a faint electric shock. Have you noticed that?” She changed the subject and finally asked him about it.

             
“Yeah, Ava that’s just static electricity from the ship. It’s not painful is it?”

             
“No, but. . .”

             
“Nothing to worry about. All of the crew have it. It has something to do with the protective energy grid surrounding the nuclear power source of the ship kicking off static. It has to go somewhere so it gets absorbed by us.” He dismissed it, hoping this made up explanation sounded convincing. He knew she would not be able to handle the truth at this time.

             
Ava was not an expert in this sort of thing and thought that sounded like a reasonable explanation. She always wanted to believe the best in people.
Why wouldn’t he be honest with her? Wesley changed the subject right back to what they had been discussing in a round-a-bout sort of way; their relationship.

             
“Ava, I know you think that because I have a starship it would be so easy for me to fly off and leave you behind and never look back, but I’m not going to do that.”

             
“Wesley, I’ll be honest with you. I’ve lost a husband, I’ve never been with anyone else. I couldn’t take it if I lost another man I cared about.”

             
“If all I wanted was to sleep with you I would have done it and moved on by now,” he said matter-of-factly.

             
Ava didn’t know what to say. His frank statement although reassuring, surprised her. He continued; “The galaxy can be a cold and lonely place. We live in difficult, stressful times. I know you can relate to this. There are so few people who are lucky to find someone they can truly depend on and connect with on many different levels; intellectually, emotionally, physically, whatever. I feel that I have found this in you. I promise that I would never hurt you.  All I want is for you to give me a chance to show you how much I care.”

             
He was right. She did feel a connection. Even from their first meeting in the square so many months ago, she had felt this ever growing affinity for him, and also for the six other crew members, almost knowing she belonged with them. They were like her family. It was hard for her to imagine her life now without them. He had acknowledged and addressed her concerns, why then should she hesitate to let their relationship flow into the next level? She could not think of a reason. The sorrow leftover in her heart after Nathan’s death has changed. She no-longer felt depressed, she no-longer felt empty inside. She realized she had healed and that his loving memory would always be with her, always be a part of her, and that she should not feel guilty or afraid to move on. It was time. She smiled at this discovery and placed her other hand over his. This was a turning point in their relationship, and they both knew it.

Ava slept through most of the return flight back to Orionis. As promised they pulled into the hangar and landed by 4 p.m. on Monday. She said her good-byes to the crew, who had already begun prepping to load the ship for their early morning departure. Wesley carried one of Ava’s travel bags as they made their way through the ITO security and back to her small living quarters. They held hands as they walked, chatting about possible plans for the next weekend. Ava was thankful that it was Monday, she wouldn’t have to wait so long to see him again on Friday.  When they reached her home she invited him in for a few minutes.  He could not stay long because he needed to get back to the ship to help the others prepare for the next mission.

“I had such a wonderful time with you this weekend. Thank you so much for inviting me to come to Capri with you. I cannot even compare it with Orionis in terms of entertainment and overall living conditions.”

“You are very welcome Ava, anytime,” he spoke slowly looking directly into her eyes. “I loved having you with us.”

He embraced her. The nice thing about Wesley was that he was always warm, a desirable quality to have in cold space station. She hugged him back, resting her head up high on his chest. After a moment he released her slightly and she took this as a cue to look up at him. He leaned in slowly and they kissed gently a few times. It surprised Ava how natural it felt, like this is how it is supposed to be. She felt a warm sensation fill the room, it flowed through her, around her. It made her feel as though something inside of her had woken up after hibernating for a long time. It did not occur to her that this feeling of vitality was more than her growing affection for Wesley. They bid each other farewell and kissed again, both smiling as they parted ways. The sensation faded a short while after he left, waning as this distance between them increased. Ava did not notice, she felt preoccupied by the happiness she felt as she busied herself unpacking and getting ready for the work week ahead.