When Raven Reyes pulled up to the NASA Training Center, she didn't think anything of the black motorcycle parked near the entrance of the building. It was an early Sunday morning and she knew no one else would be in the building. There was a gray fog running across the parking lot and hiding the airstrip from her view. It had been raining all morning and she had hardly seen a soul when she passed through the gates on her way onto the base. The sentry had glanced at her ID and waved her on through.
Raven parked her Jeep as close to the building as she could manage and jumped out. She hit the wet pavement a little too hard and her leg buckled. She cried out in pain as the metal from her brace dug into her side. She must not have tightened it enough when she put it on this morning.
She limped to the front door and swiped her keycard, the door slid open silently. The hallway inside was dark and only her staggered footfalls echoed through the empty building. She pulled her headphones on from around her neck and pushed play on her playlist. The music pierced through the silence and Raven could feel the tension leaving her body as she continued around the corner to the lab.
She flipped on the light switch to Room One and started up the Stimulator. The machine hummed to life and beeped hello to Raven. She left the room to change into her flight suit, not noticing the coffee cup next to the keyboard or the hot steam rises out of it.
The locker room was cold, like always. One bright fluorescent bulb lit up the far end of the room, but the benches and lockers were all covered in darkness. Raven opened her locker and looked up at the red flight suit. She reached out and rubbed the cool, smooth fabric between her fingers.
This suit was different from the pilot uniform she was used to wearing during her Air Force days. The green flight suit always pinched uncomfortably along her stomach and arms, but this suit was roomy and soft against her skin.
She sat down on the bench and started to remove the brace on her leg. It slipped off easily and she knew it definitely wasn't on tight enough, to begin with, this morning. She shrugged out of her jacket and slipped off her shoes. She lifted her hips to shimmy out of her jeans and then carefully removed the necklace from around her neck taking her headphones with it. She could feel the beat of the music coming from the headphones when she laid it down on the bench beside her.
She stood up, careful to keep all of her weight on her good leg and went to hang her necklace up in her locker. The origami bird twirled around on its chain and Raven closed her eyes for a moment. Remembering.
She remembered when her first boyfriend, Finn, had given it to her before she left for basic training all those years ago. She remembered tying it around the throttle of her fighter jet before leaving that night.
The night that changed Raven's life forever.
She sat down again and rubbed at the scar on her lower back before pulling her tank top over her head. She shivered as the cool air of the locker room blew over her body. She moved her hands down her leg straightening it out and tapping rhythmically as she went. It had been numb since the bullet entered her spine, but she liked to check every day, hoping and praying, it would return to normal.
But all this time later, it hadn't changed.
And because of this, Raven dragged herself out of bed early every Sunday morning to train.
If she couldn't be a fighter pilot anymore, she would be damned if she didn't become the youngest spacewalker in fifty years.
Raven didn't need her legs to work properly for her to walk among the stars.
She reached over for her leg brace, grabbing blindly, her fingers searching until it slipped off the bench and hit the floor with a loud thud. Raven cursed to herself and leaned over. But she couldn't quite reach it, her bad leg was stuck and she couldn't twist her body close enough to the floor.
Raven huffed in frustration and pushed herself back up on the bench to try again.
She was so preoccupied with picking the brace off the floor that she didn't notice when someone else walked into the locker room. Their steps were muffled by her heavy breathing. She had her fingers on the brace when a cold hand touched her back.
Raven let out a loud scream in surprise and felt her bad leg slipping off the bench taking the rest of her body with it. She hit the cold concrete floor and knew immediately she was going to have a bruise on her backside.
She swung her long dark hair over the front of her body trying to hide as much of her body as she could with it and her hands before looking up.
"Are you okay?" A soft voice spoke and it took a moment for Raven to realize who the voice belonged to in the dark room.
"I'm fine. I'm fine." She said trying to drag herself up off the floor.
"Sorry, I didn't know you were in here." The voice registered this time and Raven looked up into the brown eyes of Lieutenant Shaw. He grabbed her arm gently and guided her up onto the bench.
Shaw was the new guy in their department. He had arrived last month and Raven wasn't sure what to think of him yet. He was quiet and kept to himself for the most part when Raven saw him at their training sessions during the week. He was a former Air Force pilot like herself, but she didn't know how he had ended up in NASA's Astronaut Program.
"Lieutenant Shaw, good morning." Raven straightened up on the bench and gave him a quick salute.
"G'morning, Airman Reyes. What are you doing?" He didn't salute back but stepped away from her and went to the lockers on the opposite wall.
"Just coming in to get some practice on the Zero-G Stimulator. You?" Raven asked and took the opportunity to look Shaw over when he turned around to open his locker.
He was wet and shirtless. A pair of dirty Nike Air Force Ones were on his feet and gray sweatpants sat low on his hips. But it was the tattoo that stretched across his bare shoulder blades and down the back of his forearms that Raven couldn't look away from. As Shaw picked up a towel out of his locker and rubbed the back of his neck, the bird wings moved gracefully as if the wings tattooed on his body were real. Raven had an urge to run her fingers over the ink. And she really had to fight an urge when he turned around and she noticed the sharp lines of his stomach muscles and the trail of stars that peaked out from the waistband of his pants. Shaw coughed loudly and Raven looked up meeting a smirk and saw humor in his eyes.
"You like what you see, Reyes?" He teased her. Raven looked away quickly and down at her lap noticing her state of undress and her body flushed pink with embarrassment.
She didn't move to cover up but looked back up and cocked her eyebrow. "I like when I don't have to see anyone here. Since it's our day off and all that, Lieutenant Shaw."
"Zeke. You can call me Zeke. We kind of have an equal footing over on this side." He jerked his head in the direction of the military side of the base. As future astronauts he was right, they all trained as equals.
He unclasped a gold chain around his neck that Raven hadn't noticed yet either. The cross swung back and forth as he placed it in his locker and then he grabbed his flight suit.
He slipped his pants and shoes off. It left them both in their underwear, which wasn't a big deal to Raven, she's was used to states of undress in mixed company, thanks to the male-dominant field she had worked in her whole life. But with only the two of them sitting in the dim light of the room on an early morning, it was much more intimate than she would have liked to feel.
"Why are you all wet?" She blurted out.
Zeke chuckled and stepped into his flight suit while explaining to her how he went for a run this morning and didn't realize it was supposed to rain.
But as he pulled the suit up over his hips, Raven felt irritated that he was here at all. In her space during her time with the Stimulator. It's why she comes. To avoid anyone else being there.
The others always look at her with pity during the week. It's because she hurt herself and she couldn't do the same things they could. But they didn't watch the fighter jets fall out of the sky like falling stars. They didn't have to watch as their friends died in fiery deaths and fell into enemy territory. They weren't shot in the back to have a bullet lodged in their spine that paralyzed them. They didn't know the pain she felt with every step.
But Zeke didn't know about all that. He was new here. And when she looked up to see him holding her leg brace out, his eyes didn't hold the same pity she usually saw in the others, but understanding. Her eyes were filled with tears and he smiled sadly at her. Maybe like her, he knew pain, too, but maybe he didn't wear his battle scars on the outside like she did.
She let him guide the brace up on her leg and his fingertips glided over her skin. She had to suppress a sigh from escaping her lips when he tightened the straps over her brace, it felt like her leg was being pulled back together.
"I could use some extra practice and help, too," Zeke whispered. He put his hand out for Raven to hold onto and pulled her up off the bench helping her step into her flight suit.
She slipped her arms through the sleeves and left the suit unbuttoned. This time she notices when Zeke looks down at her chest, biting his lip before looking up at her mouth.
"Alright, but I get to choose the music first." She told him.
Zeke let her go first out of the locker room. He kept in step with her down the hall, never rushing ahead but patiently walking beside her.
Room One housed the computers to run the Zero-G Stimulator and Raven could see through the glass panel that it was spinning and turning in the large wind tunnel waiting for them.
Zeke sat down at the desk and picked up the coffee cup taking a large sip. He clicked around on the computer as Raven buttoned up her suit and then went over to the closet for the rest of their equipment.
"Raven's Playlist, I'm assuming?" Zeke pointed at the playlist she used on the weekend and she nodded her head at him. The music blasted through the small speakers and echoed around the wind tunnel.
Raven rolled her shoulders and popped her neck, relaxing and finding her center. She stoped and looked over at Zeke.
"Why don't you go first?" She motioned to the Stimulator.
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, I've been here way longer than you have. You said you could use the practice and the help. I'll walk you through my routine."
Zeke got up from the computer and gestured for her to have a seat. Raven sat down, changing the song to something more upbeat and changed the settings on the Stimulator.
"We usually only do five clicks..." Zeke said but Raven held up her hand to quiet him. He shook his head at her and went to put his helmet on before walking down to the entrance of the Stimulator. Raven knew her settings were a little higher than regulations but it made for one hell of a spacewalk.
"Can you hear me okay, Shaw?" Raven spook into her microphone and Zeke signaled a thumbs up.
"Okay. You're going to have to get a running start, okay? If you want to walk among the stars, you have to chase them first." She heard Zeke laugh through the speakers before he took off into zero gravity. In slow motion, his body flew through the air. The Stimulator went dark and then white spots started popping off everywhere mimicking the night sky. Raven could see Zeke's red flight suit shooting off into the corner of the Stimulator, bending his knees to pick up as much momentum as possible.
"I choose speed over death every time, Reyes."
Raven laughed at that and sat back in her chair watching him fly. She pictured the wings on his back as he soared around the tunnel. She could see his eyes widened in delight and his smile stretched across his face on the computer monitor that tracked his vitals and recorded his movements. And Raven knew at that moment, she wasn't going to mind spending her Sundays with Zeke Shaw.
When it was her turn, she didn't run but leapt up into zero gravity letting it take her up as high as possible before pushing herself down as low to the ground as she dared to go. She felt weightless and free. Her leg felt light as a feather, not the usual heaviness that always accompanied her. She quickly loses track of time and space as usual until she hears Zeke's voice crackling through her headset.
"Come in, Raven. How are feeling?"
"This is Raven Reyes." She said into the headset of her helmet. "And I feel alive."