Chapter Nine
Halee was sitting on the veranda of James' sister's state house looking out over the ocean. James walked up and handed her a drink and sat down next to her. The sun was starting to set and the sky was cast in a beautiful orange. Once James sat down, Halee punched his arm.
"Hay! What was that for?" He asked, shaking his arm to get rid of the small pain.
"That's for the barrel roll you did, I haven't been that frightened since my first day of zero-g combat training." She answered.
"I've been flying since I learned how to walk, you were perfectly safe."
"Well, tell that to my stomach." she said, taking a sip of her drink.
"I have a feeling you'll be fine." James said, leaning back on the wall of the house.
Halee stared out over the ocean at the sunset. "I don't think I've ever seen a more beautiful sunset. I was born in south Texas, I grew up in a beach front house on the Gulf of Mexico." she said laughing at herself. "I never thought that I would say that." She turned her head in such a way that made James stop for a second.
"What is it?" Halee asked.
"It's nothing, for a moment you reminded me of some one I knew." James said quietly. "Just forget about it."
"Ok... Hey, can I ask you a question?" Halee asked
"You just did." James joked.
"Ha ha. On the plane, 'Karma' was painted on the side, what's that? The name of the plane?"
"Karma's my call-sign I got in the academy. Pilots don't make up their own call-signs, they're given to them. During training I was in a pretty serious crash, I almost died..."
"I thought you've been flying since you learned how to walk." Halee said sarcastically.
"Has I was saying, I almost died. The doctor that treated me was raised Buddhist, he said that I must have good karma to survived. Well, Amanda heard what he said that, and well, I've had the name for about 9 years."
"I like it." Halee admitted. "I was expecting something more..."
"More what?"
"I don't now, macho?"
James was about to respond when his comm-badge that he had in his pocket chirped. "Commander Soul here." he responded.
"Commander, this is Ensign Golden, Something has come up, and the Captain has cancelled shore leave, he's ordering everyone back to the ship and has scheduled a meeting of the senior staff." The young ensign reported.
"Did he give a reason?"
"No sir. Just orders that everyone beam back to the ship."
"Ok, Lieutenant Valco and I will be on our way shortly."
"Lieutenant Val..."
"Soul out." James said cutting him off trying to keep a straight face, but both of them burst out laughing.
"You know, they're going to start talking. The Divination has quite the rumour mill on board." Halee mentioned.
"Let them talk, nothing happened. Just two new friends enjoying shore leave. Come on, I got to lock this place up before we get back on board." James said, offering Halee hand to help her up.