Over The Garden Gate

Arrival + 1 day
Christian's House
Lucifer's Landing, Angel
Kalidasa (Xuan Wu) system
1330hrs, local time

I'd spent the morning at Muleskinner’s taking apart and repairing a washing machine with Lem and it was with some surprise I let him do the lion's share of the work. Christian was right, as usual. Lem's grasp of things mechanical was advanced for a boy his age. While he was busy with it, I took Muleskinner aside for a word and he confirmed it. If Lem ever needed a job as assistant, it was practically in his pocket at the tender age of seven. If Morningstar ever needed a ship's mechanic, Lem already had a fair start at it, I thought privately and thanked the old man for his willingness to take my boy on. Muleskinner laughed and waved off my thanks, saying he was getting the better part of the bargain. So Lem repaired the machine, I checked on his progress and scrounged the shop for a few parts the Gift needed. Muleskinner was doing well if his inventory was any indication. Christian had mentioned that business had picked up with the influx of settlers from less tolerant areas of Angel and Lucifer's Landing had benefitted. I was glad to see Muleskinner was included.

A rising tide lifts all boats, or so the saying went.

It was approaching noon when we took our leave and I got Lem home to feed him. Christian had a house in town and getting there was the work of a minute. Putting food in front of Lem was likewise easy. He was in the middle of a growth spurt and his appetite was enormous. Watching him put away the food made me wonder how Christian managed to keep the boy fed. To say nothing of occupied--after eating enough to put a normal person into a digestive coma, Lem was up and moving and in need of something constructive to do.

"Let's weed," I said, having noticed Christian's garden needed tending. "We'll surprise Papa. It'll save him the sunburn."

And that's how Nika found us, squatting in the dirt of the beds, yanking invasive greenery from the beans and the squash and the roses. I heard her step on the gravel path and turned to see her closing the white picket gate of the yard. I told Lem to carry on and waved Nika my hello.

***

Leaning on the gate, Nika watched the two of them. Her blue eyes on Lem were affectionate, and she lifted her chin in response to Rina's wave. She didn't approach them, though, figuring that Rina was coming her way instead. "How's he doing?" she asked when the mechanic was close enough to hear her low tone.

***

"He's a different little boy," I said, matching her volume. I leaned on the gate and watched him working a row of vegetables, his nimble fingers pulling the weeds from the feathery carrot tops. "Seriously, Nika. Dirtside living agrees with him. I never really thought our girl was the right environment. Not enough room to move, canned air, canned food. But here? His color's good and he's grown two inches. Since June." I could hear the fatuous tone creeping into my voice and shut up. That sort of thing was tedious, even amongst friends.

***

A faint smile played about her lips as Nika watched the boy. "It's good," she agreed mildly. "Glad we came." She wasn't feeling in the mood to be verbose; she'd finally purged some of her emotions by talking to Christian this morning, though she was still sorting.

***

"Did you get a ride in?" I asked after the silence between us grew long. She'd left the house early that morning and since I'd once overheard Christian mention taking out a horse while she was here, I assumed that was where she'd been. "Nice day for it."

It was, really. It might have been the last gasp of winter as the calendar went, but the day was warm and sunny. Being outdoors was less a hardship and more a pleasure and I reckoned spending a few hours on the back of a horse was as good a way to enjoy it as any.

***

Yeah," Nika replied. "Took the scenic route. Lot more people here than there used to be. Wanted to get the lay of the land before I took Lem out." She crossed her arms as she leaned there, her face tipping up to the sun. Being dirtside was great as long as it wasn't too long.

***

"I noticed. It's looking almost like a regular town instead of a graveyard." With an increase of people came an increase of risk, or so my paranoia insisted. Some of the immigrants might have been decent folk trying to make their way without petty restrictions imposed on them from others. Some might be criminals looking to set up housekeeping where the law was less able to curtail them. Christian was adept at reading people and he was an important part of the community with Morningstar, but he couldn't be everywhere and see everything. He couldn't tie Lem to a tree like a dog for his own protection. My thoughts ran down the well-oiled tracks of paranoia and I stopped that train short of the station. Think of something else. What did Christian say when we danced last night?

"Christian tells me Lem's got friends his own age to play with. And he's already noticing the girls hereabouts. God, Nika," I groaned. "I'm too young to be a mother, much less a grandmother. One minute he's a babe in arms, the next, he's courting. If you could call yanking a girl's braids courting."

***

Nika merely snorts. "Pullin' a braid's where it starts," she agrees easily. "Soon enough, it's kissin' behind the barn." She pauses and glances at Rina with a faint grin twisting the corners of her mouth. "You do realize for all the crap you give me about it, neckin' mostly all that ever happened in that hayloft til just before I left home, right? It ain't no big deal... just sayin'."

***

"Your hayloft business is safe with me," I grinned wryly back at her. "I grew up with four brothers, remember? I spent years watching them mooning or competing over some girl or other. Or walking in on them doing something they really shouldn't. Or at least, shouldn't've been doing where they could be found doing it." I shook my head and sighed over the follies of hormonal teen males and added, "I'm just glad they stopped yanking my braids. There's a reason I keep my hair short that's got nothing to do with machine safety. Gettin' long," I added. "I should get Christian cut it for me before we leave."

I ran my fingers through it as I said it. It had been over a year and a half since it had a proper barbering. Since Miranda, in fact.

***

At the mention of hair, Nika shrugged. She couldn't much speak to the hair thing -- dirtside she rarely pinned the braid up under itself so the bottom of it was swinging around the small of her back. Her one vanity, if it could be called that. "He's already raggin' on me for not takin' better care of mine too." She kind of missed the pampering that Christian was so good at, though she'd never admit it aloud. Being here, even for the few short days they'd been on the ground, was beginning to smooth the razor-sharp edges of her mood.

***

“Oh please,” I snorted. “If that’s all he’s said to you, you got off lucky. Me? My hair’s a rat’s nest, my cuticles a dog’s breakfast, my wardrobe fit for nothing but the trash bin.” It was an old argument and a comfortable one, and it was something I’d missed in his absence. “If I didn’t know that man better, I’d say he’s got make-over written all over me. Head to toe. All I want it to hack my mop to something more sensible. He wants to turn me into a princess.”

Like that’s going to happen.

"Seriously. It almost makes me wish I was back on Colchester. The worst the Feds could have done to me was kill me. He's talking about eyeliner!"

***

That brought a true smile to the blond's face. Nika smiled. "I'm stayin' out of that whole argument with you," she commented mildly. "Although tell him if he wants to fix your clothes situation, it'll have to come out of his pocket. I'm pretty sure all most of us got left is what we're wearin' on our backs. Maybe a couple changes of clothes."

***

The mention of our wardrobes and their lack only reminded me of Rick’s and my mood sobered.

“I’ve got Rick’s boxed up and ready to go.” I’d done it on the voyage over, sorting and packing his things neatly for disposition. If they went into the boxes a little damp, no one but I would know and no one who ultimately received them would care. “Donate them here?”

***

Nika nodded, blue eyes shuttering once more as she looked out over the garden. "Good," she replied quietly. "Need to sort out where it needs to go. If he's got family to send a message to. He never mentioned anyone in the time he was aboard, but it don't mean his mama ain't out there waitin' to hear from him." Rick was just that private about his background... and now they had to dig into it a bit to determine if anyone needed to be told.

***

"I'm sure Christian would know best who could use them here. As for the rest, I'll see if he and I can't find out. He knows people who might know people. If nothing else, we can fire off a message to Faria and see if he knows anything about Rick's next of kin. They served together. A commander is supposed to know that about his men."

And I stopped there before I said anything more. Nika was our Captain and it was her duty to know that detail about Rick. About all of us, really. Not that I could ever tell her the truth about mine. And in my more cynical moments, I had to wonder if being Captain was something she did because she'd been trapped into it by her conscience rather than any genuine desire for it. It wasn't something I felt I could ask, however, not now. We had enough on our plates dealing with Rick's death and its aftermath. Time enough for the other matter later, when the emotions were less raw.

***

The implied criticism brought out the Border drawl as Nika pushed up off the gate and uncrossed her arms. "Well, darlin’, since with the current crew we've got one person who'd lie to my face about the answer to that question and two others who don't know who should be contacted because they either don't know who they are or ain't got family other than this crew, looks like I'm doin' just fine." She moved to open the gate. "Let Lem know when he's done with the weedin', I'll take him ridin' if he wants." And then she stepped out and closed the gate behind her firmly, her body language inviting no further conversation.

***

I drew breath to tell her that she'd misunderstood but the words never made it past my teeth. She's right. Next of kin's something for the Brass to handle and Captain's job or not, I just rubbed her nose in it. I took in the line of her back and gauged her willingness to linger, and decided that the better part of discretion was to let her go.

"I'll tell him," I said instead, pitching my voice to carry. "I'll comm you when we're done."

***

A handwave up into the air as she walked was the only acknowledgement she got.

***

I pushed off the gate and rejoined Lem, who'd found a garter snake and was playing with it while he waited for me. I plucked it from his wrist and put the sleek little reptile with the runner beans where there would be more shade for it. Then I told him about Nika's promise of a ride after the job was done and spent the rest of the hour trying to keep up with him.

***

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