Chapter Two

The Tempest

About a month had passed, with the performance due the day after next, when Ensign Elizabeth Cutler walked into the Mess Hall late at 'night', surprised to find Hoshi Sato staring out the port at the stars. Cutler had grown used to her occasionally erratic schedule, but for Hoshi, this was when she should be deeply asleep. She came up beside her, but Hoshi kept staring, lost in thought. Silently, they watched the rushing stars, as they shot from left to right along the starboard side of the ship, broken into the full spectrum of color by the Doppler effect of their speed.

"They're beautiful, aren't they, 'Princess'?" Liz asked in a contrived French accent. Hoshi turned to her, surprised.

"Hi. I didn't see you. Sorry."

"Too busy stargazing."

"Guess so."

"I thought you didn't like this side. You told me the stars are going the wrong way." She turned back, staring out, silent for many moments.

"I don't. I can't stand it." She said distantly.

"Oh."

"What time is it?"

"Oh three thirty six." Hoshi groaned, flexing her legs one at a time.

"No wonder my feet are killing me."

"How long have you been here?"

"Four hours."

"Four Hours? Hoshi, that's not stargazing, that's cramming for an Astrometrics final."

"Please, don't mention Astrometrics." Liz paused, considering the strange request.

"All right." There was a long silence. Longer. Longer still.

"I've come from a rehearsal." Hoshi said out the window, knowing how her revelation would be received. She was not disappointed.

"Rehearsal? Tonight? But - I'm your Interpreter! You don't have any scene without me. What did you have to rehearse?"

"The final scene." She said distantly. "When Henry tries to woo Katherine. The one where he professes his love for her. The one where he tries to get her to love him. The one where -."

"I know the scene. I'm in it."

"Seamus set the computer to do your lines."

"Thanks a lot!" Liz exclaimed, deeply offended. "I guess you want to do it like that on Saturday as well."

"I'm quitting." Hoshi told the viewport.

"What?" Offense gave way to astonishment. "You can't quit! We go on in less than two days. Why would you -." Hoshi turned to her, and the answer seemed plain. "You had a fight?" Hoshi turned back to the portal, deeply miserable. "You two bickered in a love scene? About what?"

Hoshi shook her head. "I don't want to talk about it. I just can't do it. He's going to have to find someone else."

"Must have been one hell of a fight." Silence. "Want to talk about it?"

Hoshi shook her head. Hadn't she already said she did not? But then, sometimes the best friends are the pushy ones.

"We didn't fight. We rehearsed. We rehearsed the scene. Got almost all the way through it, to the point where Henry is about to say to Katherine 'You have witchcraft in your lips, Katherine.', when they kiss for the first time."

"And?" Liz prompted. How could the woman just leave it hanging there?

"He kissed me."

"Well, of course he kissed you. He kisses you twice in that scene. That's -." Hoshi turned to her.

"No. He KISSED me!"

x

"Oh." Liz said after a moment, not quite knowing what to say. "He kissed you."

"Yes. He's telling me - I mean, Henry is telling Katherine - how much he loves her. And he is so intense, just like always. Really pouring out his heart to her. And then he got to the point where he kisses her and he kissed me."

"You're sure?" She hesitated, seeing the look in Hoshi's eyes. "I mean, I'm sure you know he kissed you. But are you sure he - he wasn't just getting deep into the role?"

"No. He's kissed me about a dozen times in rehearsal. This was a KISS!"

"Yes, but was it a Seamus O'Cathain-Hoshi Sato kiss or a King Henry-Princess Katherine kiss?"

"I don't know. I think it was a Seamus-Hoshi kiss. I was sure of it, but he caught me too much by surprise."

"Well, what did he say?"

"I don't know."

"You don't — Well, what did you say?"

"Nothing."

"Nothing?" She cannot believe this. "Hoshi, the man gives you, you think, a level five kiss -"

"Ten." She corrected, using their private scale.

"TEN?" Cutler is astounded. "Hoshi, the man gives you a level ten kiss and you do nothing?"

"Oh, I did something."

"What?"

"I turned and ran."

x

Her friend stared at her, astounded. "You what and what?"

"I turned and ran. It freaked me out - I didn't know what to do, and the next moment I was running out of his quarters. I ran like a stupid schoolgirl, and that was four hours ago. I've spent the last four hours wondering if what I thought was real, if I misinterpreted it; or if I was a stupid jerk and behaved like a fool. I'll be so ashamed if I misread him, but he seemed so - That is, I was sure he - But was it Henry? Or was it Seamus? It's such a stupid scene anyway. A King comes to a Princess he's never met, they can barely communicate, and he tells her he loves her? How stupid can it be? She must think he's crazy! How could Shakespeare have written such a stupid love scene?"

"All right. Calm down and let's approach this logically. You say out of nowhere he kissed you. Has he ever said anything to you before this?"

"No."

"Given you any indication of any feelings for you?"

"No."

"Not anything?"

"Not nothing! Suddenly he's got his arms around me, and he's kissing me."

"He grabbed you?" Cutler exclaimed, her mind already leaping to other concerns.

"Not like that. Not like he was trying to - . It's just - In the scene he kisses me, but it's usually just a touch on the lips. This time..."

"This time Henry gives Katherine a level ten. But Seamus has never..." Hoshi stared at her; then turned away, burying her face in her hands.

"Ohhh nooooo! Oh, what a jerk I am. I thought it was him. I looked at him, thought I saw love in his eyes; and I FREAKED! I ran away, and he was acting. Oh Hell. He probably thinks I'm the biggest moron in the galaxy."

"You have to talk to him, Hoshi." She turned back to her friend.

"How? I just made a huge fool of myself. I can't even bear to face him."

"But you're going to. Every day on this voyage. And tomorrow evening you're going to play a love scene with him." She groaned. "Would it help if I went with you?"

"Oh sure. Bring my best friend along to convince the guy that I really am a huge jerk. That should go very well."

"Just offering." She said; the hurt clear in her voice. Hoshi turned, putting her arms around her.

"Sorry. I'm just going nuts over this. I didn't mean to..."

"It's o.k. So, when are you going to talk to him?"

"Better be first thing, before things get more out of hand."

Liz looked at the chronometer on the wall. "Then you'd better get some sleep. You have to be up for duty in three hours."

xxx

But it was a very unrested Hoshi that stood in the corridor outside Lt. O'Cathain's quarters. She had showered thoroughly, trying through it all to think of something to say, put on a fresh uniform and felt completely unrefreshed. Now she stood, trying to ignore the looks of passing crewmen as she tried very hard to raise her hand to the door chime. She kept trying to think of something to say. She kept thinking about what would happen after she pressed the button.

The door slid open and O'Cathain brought himself up short at the unexpected obstacle in his doorway. "Oh, Ensign, I'm sorry."

"No, it's my fault. I - I - I should be... That is, can we ... can we talk?"

Surprised, he backed in, ushering her inside. "Of course."

She went in, finding his quarters unchanged from last evening, as if she had actually expected a difference. Actually, the only thing changed here was her. "I - er - I just wanted to say I'm sorry."

"No, it was my fault. I don't know what came over me. I'm just relieved you didn't slap my face."

"No. I wouldn't! I just... That is..." She stared to pace. "I feel like a jerk. I shouldn't have run. It's just that you caught me so - ."

"I'm sorry."

"No, it's my fault. I misunderstood." She paced faster, unable to meet his eyes. "We're friends, and suddenly I thought - that is you kissed me - I mean Henry kissed Katherine but I thought - I don't know what I was thinking, but I know I made a jerk of myself."

"No. You didn't."

"I did." She kept pacing an erratic course, moving faster, not knowing where to go. "I misunderstood. I thought that you were kissing me. I thought - here's a crazy thought - but I thought for a moment that you were in love with me."

"And how did that make you feel?" She paced her wild course more urgently, her words coming at a frantic, breathless rush.

"I don't know. All I know is that I ran out of here, and I felt like a jerk when I realized that you 'Henry' were kissing me 'Katherine', just a different way than we used to rehearse. I spent hours thinking that you actually loved me, until I talked to Liz Cutler and she set me straight. Now I feel like a fool and I would just hope that we can put this misunderstanding behind us and that you won't think I'm a real jerk and that we can get back to work on the play and that I don't behave like a scared little girl again and that this can remain our secret and that things can get back to normal good-bye." She headed for the door.

x

"I'm in love with you, Hoshi Sato." She came to such a sharp stop that she was sure she would hurt something, but it was moments before she could look back at him, barely willing to believe what she'd thought she'd heard him say. "Yes, Hoshi. I am in love with you. Like Henry, I think it was from the first instant I saw you, but I could never think of how to tell you."

It felt to the young woman like the entire ship was spinning wildly out of control. The stabilizers kicked in only when she had found her voice. "You love me?" She asked softly.

"Yes. Silently, longingly, for months. I didn't know how to tell you, didn't know how you would react. I knew I couldn't find the right words to express how I felt, and I was too scared of what you would say. I tried for months, but nothing would come out. I couldn't approach you. I didn't have the words. But then I realized that Henry did. That Shakespeare did."

"Are you telling me that you set up all this, this huge play, so that you could tell me you love me?"

"Yes." She stared at him, and started wishing that Shakespeare had given her some words. "Hoshi? Please? Say something?"

"Excuse me!"

And for the second time in a day Hoshi Sato retreated from Seamus O'Cathain's quarters.