400Hi! :)
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I kinda have a lot to say about this story but I'll let you enjoy the chapter in peace. Please read the AN at the bottom :)
Love you all! ;)
Somewhere between our laughs, long talks,
stupid little fights and all our lame jokes...
I fell in love.
~Unknown
Pilot astronaut Rose Hathaway.
"Hey, Lissa!" I faked a large smile when I opened the door, discretely straightening my shirt as I kept one hand on the door.
Lissa's suspicious jade eyes widened, either because of my suddenly sunny disposition or because of my messy appearance.
"What's going on?" She questioned slowly, eyes scanning me thoroughly.
"Nothing!" I said, perhaps a little too brightly.
Lissa crossed her arms over her chest and narrowed her eyes. "Where's Dimitri?"
"He left." I shrugged, shifting slightly to block Lissa's view of the room behind me.
"Oh?" Lissa arched an eyebrow, a trick we'd all tried to learn from Dimitri in the early days of our voyage. Lissa was the only one who'd picked it up and right now, that was not helping me conceal things from her.
Knowing I needed to distract her, I pulled on an earnest expression: "Lissa, I'm fine. Dimitri made me realized just how idiotic I was acting by pushing you all away."
Lissa scanned my face intently and then relaxed visibly. "I'm glad. You know we're here for you, right?"
"Of course!" I grinned, relaxing a little in turn.
Unfortunately for me, lowering my guard was exactly what Lissa was after, that wily shrew. Without warning, she stood on her tiptoes and peered over my shoulder.
"Lissa!" I pulled the door to a close behind me.
"You're keeping secrets from me." Lissa accused. "Again!"
I sighed, running my fingers through my hair. Of course, she figured it out. "It's nothing serious. In fact, it's not even a secret. It's just-"
I faltered, not knowing what to tell her. That Dimitri and I were a couple? Were we, really? It was such a inconsequential detail, especially when so much was going on…
Lissa studied me for a moment. Something seemed to click, for she gave me a large smile and did a little skip.
"Yes!" She whooped and grabbed me in a hug.
What was with the bipolar attitude?
Pulling back, she beamed and retreated a few paces. "I'll be going, then. Bye!"
Baffled, I watched her as she giggled and walked over to the stairs before looking back at me with a wink.
"Don't worry, Rose." She said, that broad grin still in place. "I'll make up some excuse for the others. Good night!"
Oh, that cheeky devil…
Shaking my head at her happiness, I stepped into my room and shut the door behind me, my eyes falling on the person lounging in my bed.
"She's incredibly astute," was the first thing he said, his arms crossed behind his head.
"She's always been," I told him, smiling as I walked over to sit on the bed. "I don't know why I keep forgetting that."
Dimitri straightened his position to pull him into his arms. Laying my head on his chest, I reflected on the incredibly topsy-turvy day that I'd had.
"So you realized just how idiotic you were acting, huh?" Dimitri mumbled into my hair, quoting the words I'd said to Lissa.
"Mmhm…" I raised my head slightly to look at him.
He looked into my eyes, running his fingers through my hair soothingly.
"I'm glad you knocked some sense into me." I said truthfully, pressing a quick kiss to his lips.
He smiled into the kiss, pulling away to press a kiss my forehead.
I snuggled into his side, making myself comfortable. Dimitri pulled my blanket over us and switched off the light.
It was strange how we'd both reached the same conclusion of going to sleep on my bed. I didn't want Dimitri to leave me alone and he'd understood without me having to say a single word.
I might have stayed up all night, thinking about the effect our growing relationship might have on our mission and on the team, if I'd not been so damn tired.
There would be time to introspect tomorrow.
Tonight, it was just Dimitri and I- the distance between us finally reduced to nothing.
Well, at least the emotional distance.
I wonder how it would be when we finally came together…physically.
Feeling my body start to heat up, I chastised myself for even entertaining such thoughts.
There were a lot more important things to worry about, after all.
But the heart wants what it wants.
Logically, I knew I should be concentrating on finding solutions to our life-or-death problems but my heart only wanted to think about Dimitri and I, our relationship…just us.
"Rose…" Dimitri whispered, almost asleep. "Stop thinking and go to sleep."
"How did you know?" I whispered back.
"I can almost hear your brain working overtime," he replied, raising a hand to pat my head. "You need to rest."
"Alright." I cuddled closer to him, determined to shut the voices in my head.
Dimitri's nimble fingers massaging my head was so relaxing… I felt myself drifting off to sleep when a sudden thought struck me.
"Dimitri?" I whispered, raising my head to look at his face.
"Hmm?" He didn't open his eyes, clearly not fully awake.
I pressed a kiss to his chin. "You know those four tasks you set for me?"
"Yeah…" His reply was barely coherent.
But I couldn't stop talking, not with this new realization. "I already finished one!"
He finally opened his eyes and looked me for a moment, before realization stuck. Rolling his eyes, he said: "You didn't even do anything."
"So?" I poked his cheek, determined to get the response I wanted.
He grumbled and turned sideways, away from me.
"Hey!" I grabbed his shoulders and pulled him back to me. "It still counts."
He sighed deeply and pulled me down to him. "Whatever you say, Roza. Whatever you say."
- - -The next day- - -
Okay, I admit that this was my fault.
I shouldn't have reminded Dimitri about those four tasks.
I would have hoped that he wouldn't remember it considering he was so sleepy and all but no, this was Dimitri after all.
The man was like a dog with a bone and now, he wouldn't leave me alone until I finished the second task.
Which, he'd modified, by the way.
But no amount of arguing on my behalf had done any good; he could be quite a pest when he wanted to be.
Sighing, I pushed open the door to the conference room.
Making Dimitri commander had been my fault. How was I to know it would come back and bite me in the ass?
He'd used his power as a commander and called an emergency crew meeting before breakfast.
Yeah, no wiggle room whatsoever. I really had to do this.
Five faces with five vastly different expressions turned to stare at me when I walked into the room.
There was Lissa who couldn't stop smirking at me as though we had some private joke, which maybe we did considering she almost caught me and Dimitri together yesterday and had subsequently figured out that I was trying to hide him from her.
If only she knew what I was here to do. Or say. She wouldn't be so cheerful then.
There was Christian beside her, who looked both inquisitive and apprehensive. He must be thinking of what the last few meetings resulted in: my collapse under unexplained circumstances and my subsequent resignation.
What surprised me was the shadow of worry in his eyes. Yup, he must have figured out that I only had bad news to give them.
"What's going on, Rose?" Adrian asked, looking genuinely worried. His lovely green eyes scanned me wearily, his hands twitching as they lay on the table. My collapse had definitely worried this man.
At that moment, I felt very guilty for having kept them in the dark. They deserved to know.
And that was exactly why Dimitri was forcing me to confess the 'strange circumstances' around my losing consciousness that day.
He wanted me to tell them about Cotopa.
But how did he expect him to tell them out of the blue? 'Hey, guys! You see, I've been keeping something huge from you all. I have a deadly disease called Cotopa. I might drop dead any moment. But no worries, let's carry on with the mission.'?
"The floor's yours, Rose." Dimitri prompted, stepping aside to sit beside Christian.
He smiled innocently when I looked at him but I could clearly see that he was worried for me. He was probably wondering if he'd done the right thing by pushing me into this.
He was right, of course. I needed to tell them sooner or later.
Wanting to assuage his doubts, I faked a smile and moved to the head of the table. "Well, I'm sure you're all wondering what kind of bad news I'll give you all this time."
Christian smirked and shook his head. "Do I want to hear it?"
I snorted. "Nope, but you have to."
"What is it?" Tasha asked, leaning forward to look at me curiously.
Of the six, she was perhaps the one who was least close to me. When I'd met her, I'd been so awed by this beautiful lady who'd accomplished so much. That awe carried for nearly a year, when we were training for this mission. The admiration gradually faded as we became colleagues, equals. But our relationship started taking a turn for the worse when we both, subconsciously on my part at least, starting fighting over Dimitri. Now that he was completely mine, I couldn't help but feel sorry for her.
But this was not about Dimitri.
Or, Tasha and Dimitri.
Ew, there was no Tasha and Dimitri!
I really needed to stop distracting myself. It wasn't going to make this easier.
"Rose?" Lissa looked concerned now, perhaps having figured out what I was about to say. She'd already collected my blood samples with a promise to let me know the results soon. It didn't matter that she hadn't completely forgiven me yet; she was here for me as she'd always been.
I nodded to myself. I had to do this. "Well, there's no point in procrastinating so I'll just come out and say it."
Dimitri, who was sitting on the chair next to where I was standing, reached over and grasped my hand, intertwining our fingers to lend me some of his strength.
I smiled at him in gratitude and faced the others.
"Ihavecotopa." I said too fast, with an air of ripping off a band-aid from a large wound.
"Wow, you sure talk slowly." Christian said sarcastically.
"You have what?" Tasha asked in confusion.
But Adrian had paled, having heard me clearly. He gaped at me and I nodded once, confirming that he'd indeed heard right.
"What?" Christian asked, looking between me and Adrian.
Adrian exhaled harshly and slumped back in his seat.
"I have cotopa, Christian." I said without looking at him.
Tasha gasped loudly.
To everyone's surprise, Christian stood up abruptly and strode over to me. "What are you talking about? You don't have Cotopa."
My eyes stung as Adrian looked at me beseechingly, almost begging me to deny it. Lissa's eyes were red with suppressed tears as she reached out to grasp Adria's arm.
"I have Cotopa." I repeated again, squeezing Dimitri's hand.
"No!" Christian shouted, striding away. "You can't have Cotopa. We all had medical scans before boarding the Klasana and nothing was detected."
Tasha stood up and went over to him. "Christian, calm down-"
"Calm down?" He stared at her incredulously, his blue eyes flashing. "Rose just admitted that she has a life threatening disease. Don't you care about that?"
"Of course I care!" Tasha snapped, grasping his arms. "But getting angry won't help anyone, least of all Rose."
"You could die," Adrian interjected, his tone hollow. All eyes turned to him but he just stared at the table with dazed eyes. "You could actually die."
"Adrian-"
"No, she won't." Dimitri said firmly, glaring at Adrian. "Nothing will happen to her."
Adrian laughed without mirth. "She will and we won't be able to stop it. Just like Alberta."
I flinched at his words.
Christian banged his arms on the table: "Shut up!"
Adrian ignored him, that sad, sad grin still on his face. "You're going to die."
"Adrian, stop it!" Lissa said sharply.
He shook his head, laughing in a way that set my nerves on edge. "She will, you wait and see. She'll die."
Dimitri pulled me down to sit on his lap, his arms protective around me as though he could shield me from Adrian's words. I rested my forehead on his shoulder, trying to draw deep breaths.
Adrian's voice was echoing in my ear: "She'll die, she'll die, she'll die..."
Would I, really? All this time, I knew I had a life threatening disease but the reality had not fully sunk in, not with the threat of death in space hanging over all of us, not with the myriad problems and responsibilities and duties and-
I could actually die.
Adrian was most probably right. But why was he still repeating it?
Suppressing a sob at the hollow tone accompanying those words, I turned to Adrian to beg him to stop.
"She'll die-" Lissa cut Adrian off with a resounding slap to his cheek.
A shocked silence filled the room as we all gaped at sweet, gentle Lissa.
She was fuming, glaring at Adrian as if she was mentally setting him on fire.
Adrian, for his part, seemed to snap out of his craziness as he cradled his cheek.
"Did you just hit me?" He asked her incredulously, eyes wide.
"Yes!" Lissa's cheeks had turned red, either from exhaustion or anger. "And I'll slap you again if you repeat that bullshit."
Christian closed his mouth with a snap. "Remind me never to get on your bad side, babe." he said weakly.
Lissa shot me a small smile at him before glaring at Adrian again. His emerald eyes scanned her warily as he edged his chair away from her.
This seems to have triggered Lissa, for she started laughing abruptly.
This girl was so full of surprises.
Adrian scowled at her as she laughed, holding the stitches at her side as she attempted to smother her chuckles.
Looking at this, Adrian started laughing while gingerly rubbing his jaw.
Tasha let out an incredulous snort which, unfortunately for her, came out rather loudly.
Adrian guffawed at that sound, now clutching the table as he laughed hard enough that his eyes teared up.
Christian joined in the laughter fest when Lissa slapped Adrian's back, rubbing her own eyes.
What on God's green earth, or rather- on God's spaceship- was going on?
Well, if this was helping them cope, I couldn't begrudge them of it. I tried to imagine what it would like if I had to hear one of my crew members confess to having a disease.
It was not a pleasant thought.
If they wanted to let out their shock in the form of laughter, they were more than welcome to.
Sighing, I shifted on Dimitri's lap to look up at him.
His deep brown eyes were full of pain but there was strength there, a conviction that I'd be fine. Attempting a smile, I ensconced myself in his arms, burying my face on his shoulder.
His hand rubbed my back soothingly as we listened to our friends' crazy laughter.
You know what? I'd take laughing to crying. Any day.
- -Two days later- -
"Will you stop acting weird around me?" I snapped as I glared around the table.
Tasha flinched guiltily and Christian rubbed the back of his head.
"You've had two days to get used to it," I pointed out unnecessarily as Dimitri set a tray in front of me. "It's about time you stopped wincing whenever you look at me."
Sitting down gracefully in the chair beside mine, Dimitri cast an amused glance in my direction before going back to his tray of semi-solid Itarian food that tasted like feet. Honest.
"We're not that bad," Christian protested without much conviction.
"I'm not going to going to break and flutter away in tiny pieces." I grouched, stabbing my food with a fork.
Lissa slapped my arm. "Don't joke about that."
I shrugged. "I'm just saying-"
"Rose." Dimitri interrupted me in an exasperated tone. "Stop that. You're all overreacting. Christian, Tasha; Rose is going to be completely fine. Rose- let them have their space and deal with the news. Okay?"
I gestured grandly with my plastic fork. "Aye, aye, Captain."
Before he could reply, the door of the mess banged open.
Lissa shrieked, Tasha dropped her spoon in shock and Christian, whose elbow had been resting on the table, slipped and almost fell out of his chair.
Adrian came running in, sliding to a stop in front of the dining table. He clutched a stitch at his side as he bent over, panting hard.
Dimitri was on his feet immediately. "What's wrong?"
Adrian tried to speak and gestured towards the door. But he was huffing so badly that he could barely manage to get out a word.
Christian poured him a glass of water as Dimitri guided him to a chair. As Adrian gulped down the water, I went over to look out of the kitchen door, wondering if something had malfunctioned or caught on fire.
"Anything?" Dimitri asked me as he watched Adrian compose himself.
"Nope," I answered, walking over to stand by his side. "Mia would have told us if something was wrong."
"Nothing's wrong," Adrian wheezed out.
"Relax, Adrian." Lissa crooned, rubbing his shoulder. "Take deep breaths."
Christian aimed a glare at Adrian. "Nothing's wrong? Were you trying to give us a heart attack then?"
Lissa shot a disapproving look at Christian.
I drummed my fingers on the table impatiently as Adrian rested his forehead on the table: "Spit it out, Adrian."
Dimitri shot me a look but I just shrugged.
"Are you sure nothing's wrong?" Tasha asked Adrian with a hint of worry in her voice.
"Everything's fine," Adrian said, lifting his head up to grin at us. "Everything's fantastic. Or, going to be."
Dimitri frowned. "What do you mean?"
"I was at the observation room," Adrian started but Dimitri cut in, his tone exasperated: "Weren't you suppose to finish the hubble observation yesterday?"
"Big picture, please!" Adrian shot him an annoyed look. "As I was saying, I was at the observation room and you know, got bored."
Christian snorted.
"I- well, there's really no point in studying the hospitable zone of Ceres any longer. We're fooling ourselves by thinking we can find viela there."
'The habitable zone' is the term we use to refer to the belt around a star where temperatures are ideal for life to grow on a planet's surface. When we came through the wormhole, we first traveled to the hospitable zone of Ceres, trying to search for viela in these planets.
We'd lost Alberta in the journey between Rova and Spetna and then landed on Sietera. The reason we'd proceeded to check out the hot planet Rayana and nearly got killed was because it was the last planet in the hospitable zone of Ceres. Which is exactly why Earth center's inaction was so frustrating…because, we'd more or less exhausted the search for viela in the Ceres star system.
"So, I looked beyond the hospitable zone." Adrian confessed, running a hand through his hair. "We'd dismissed them because we'd thought it might be too cold, right? Well, turns out that's not exactly the case."
"What do you mean?" Tasha asked with bated breath.
This might actually be the breakthrough we were looking for.
"I used the infra-red filter and it clearly shows the presence of both oxygen and hydrogen in the atmosphere of the planet just beyond Rova."
"Wow! Really?" Lissa asked eagerly.
"Let's not get carried away," Dimitri warned as he looked at Tasha and Christian high-fiving each other.
I nodded sadly. "Spectral comparison clearly showed Rayana as a viable destination and look what happened."
Adrian wasn't deterred. In fact, he shot us a smug smile and said, "I knew you'd say that. Which is why I used ATLAST and guess what showed up? Water!"
I sucked in a sharp breath as Lissa squealed.
ATLAST stood for 'Advanced Technology Large-Aperture Space Telescope' which was used to take images in optical, infrared, and ultraviolet. None of the planets so far had shown signs of water in ATLAST and we'd sort of given up using it.
It was a stroke of luck that Adrian had brought it out again. This was exactly the break-through we needed!
Dimitri laughed incredulously. "Presence of water could mean-"
"-presence of viela." I finished, barely able to digest the words.
Lissa jumped and hugged Christian who was looking dazed. Tasha exuberantly kissed Adrian's cheek and Dimitri and I looked at each other in shocked awe.
"We need to see the images," I told Dimitri, exhaling harshly.
Dimitri nodded, hope dancing in his brilliant brown eyes. "Where are they, Adrian?"
"In the observation room-" Adrian had barely finished speaking when Dimitri and I ran out of the room, followed by the others.
We hurried over to the observation room, breathlessly scanning the images that ATLAST had captured.
Adrian was right.
H2O was clearly detected and marked.
Lissa nearly cried when she saw the pictures and the rest of us weren't much better. To be marooned as we'd been, without any news and a properly dictated course of action, we'd been holding out on a hope that the Earth center would soon get back to us with the next step and with reassurances that we weren't too late and that our families and friends were safe back home.
Now that we had a prospective planet to visit, spirits rose as high as hopes did.
I walked over to Adrian and pulled him into a hug, laughing when Lissa threw her arms around both of us. Tasha joined in and Lissa shouted: "Group hug!" and pulled Christian in. Dimitri wrapped his arm around me as I freed my right arm and threw it around Dimitri's waist to pull him into the group hug.
Adrian jumped in place and Tasha and I soon joined, as did Lissa. Christian and Dimitri were apparently too dignified for it, so they retreated as we jumped, still hugging each other.
This could be it.
This could be it!
AN: How was the chapter? It sure was a lengthy one; with a R&D scene, Rose's confession and much awaited destination plan. Which part did you like? Leave me a review and let me know :)
Recently, I've started researching a lot to help plot the final chapters and guess what I found? Mistakes! I've made soo many of them in the previous chapters that it's not even funny :(
I've re-written the first chapter but tempted as I may be, I'm not going to re-write the other chapters until the story is done. Which will be soon, sadly. There will be 8-10 chapters more, according to my latest plan. It will not exceed 15, I'm sure :)
Because you all are so incredible, I'm giving you a hint for the next chapter: a much needed break from all the sadness. It's games night on the Klasana, brought to you by Adrian Ivashkov :D
Excited? ;)