Chapter 6

"He's in there talking some shit about a fucking space agency, mars, drunk."

Erik was on guard. He didn't get any bullets in his rifle, but he held it as though he did.

" Just watch him, the boss wants to know why he's so god damn clean and showered. I mean you should have seen how his car sparkled, the only mud it got on was from the drive back here!"

The man shook his head and walked off. Erik waited for him to turn the corner. He had stood perfectly still since he heard the phrase 'space agency'. Betrayed no emotion. He let out a deep breath, wondering if he had been holding it all this time, surely not. The door behind him had no handle and was set in the frame, ill-fitting.

"Roberte, please tell me about space agency, quietly, say no more to these people."

For all the time he spent thinking about her, Charlie hadn't spent a great deal of time with her. Though each encounter however left him reeling until the next. He was irrevocably mind, body, spirit in love with her. It was only in the past few weeks had the chemistry really come to boiling point between them. The pauses in conversations, deep looks at each other and the smiles they couldn't hide when they saw each other. Charlie was pretty sure now that she felt something for him. He doubted it was the gut wrenching roller coaster he felt, but it was something. The preparations Captain had them doing was arduous, and social time was usually limited to having a lunch break with someone.

Sahil had been comforted by Charlie after their encounter on the road left him distressed. they had sat on the bed of the truck for a while after they got back, charlie had told him "Don't hide from your turmoil, if you want rid of it face it." He spoke about Iraq, his turmoil. he thought of charlie as a thoughtful and pondering, yet decisive man, he had need for one of these now.

"Primula is not going to let this get out, she'll shut it down without a thought."

Sahil adjusted himself nervously in his computer chair. He enjoyed eluding the security measures and infiltrating databases, but ethics was not his forte.

" and for that matter she'll kick the living shit out of you as well mate"

It was phrases like this that made the only two British people's conversations illuminating.

" I don't feel great about reading others, or them reading mine."

" But i cant imagine its much more than what people put on social media."

Sahil chewed his lip and looked askance. They were, a detailed summary of everything. A particularly interesting item was polysearch2.0 which trawled through all the images on the Internet and returned every picture in which your face was recognised. A great example of how pervasive this technology was. One of the pictures was a grainy CCTV still taken from a camera in Sahil's office, zoomed in on the family picture on his desk.

" I don't know how to play it, everyone is stressed as it is. were getting by alright. Have you looked at mine"

"Charlie I've only looked at my own."

Charlie smiled at how sincere and fragile Sahil was.

"Show me?"

After some time giggling at all his unintentional photobombs in worldwide tourist photos, Charlie straightened himself up for the more seriously marked file: 'selection necessity'. He glanced over his head and verified Sahil's keyboard tapping to be on the other side of the room.

A mixture of hilarity and hubris masked the nerves showing now only through sweaty palms. Charlie stood outside Sam's door, he had just knocked and listened carefully for steps inside. He stepped back a foot so that they wouldn't be awkwardly close when she opened the door, he checked the tiny urge to run away. The door slid open and Charlie was hit, as always with every reason he loved her at once in the form of a very strange feeling roughly emanating from his stomach. It was difficult to stay standing when this happened. She had clearly just showered, her dark hair was wet, and her nipples showed through her t-shirt.

"Look Sam"

Charlie began already kneading his palm nervously.

" Wait,"

She casually interrupted.

" is this an in the hallway type of thing or a come in type of thing?"

she smiled, signaled him in and walked to the bathroom. Shutting the door behind her with

" Just a minute."

Charlie had realised he followed her walk when the door shut. His room was a plain as when he arrived. Sam had somehow dimmed the light to a fainter glow, and had hung various items on the walls. He sat down on the bed absently, but rose when he heard the rattle of the bathroom door. Sitting on her bed was too suggestive. She emerged from the bathroom with a gray hoody on, her wet hair was tied up behind her now. The hubris had faded and now seemingly only heaps of nerves remained.

"Right, compared to the apocalypse, this probably seems really silly, i mean, its..."

" Yes?"

she gave a sardonic smile.

" i fancy you Sam"

Choking he corrected himself

" I really, really like you Sam."

Sam gave a knowing, happy smile, it was like she always knew what he was going to say, unsurprised always.

" Well i didn't like you when we first met, i thought you were a cocky British soldier! But, i like you now, i think."

They still stood for a second. But she quickly advanced towards him, surprising him but he caught her by the hips and held her. Her kiss was sweet and his body rippled with euphoric pleasure, but the logistics of kissing someone almost 2 foot smaller than you needed work. She came down off her tip toes and locked into his eyes, like she had already done it a thousand times.

" There's something else."

He drew back from her gaze, still holding her hips.

" It's not important, not as important. "

"Good."

She put her hand on his chest and gently pushed his body until he stumbled back onto the bed, the one he had rose from for fear of being too suggestive earlier.

In the cramped one person bed the two lovers lay. 'High propensity' Charlie smiled thinking to himself.' they must be molecular level spies.' They knew before i did, that we would be lying in this sweaty single person bed, he thought. They got dressed and arrived to Sahil's embarrassment as a couple. He opened her file.

" Okay leave the room now please."

"It's fine, we will.."

"...Leave the room, now."

Sahil about turned and left immediately at this sharpness. It cut Charlie like a knife, he stared at her hurt and she looked back with a blank persistent gaze. Charlie was outside the room thinking about Sam's complexities. He had the feeling as the door bumped him as he moved slowly out, that this was the beginning of a confusing relationship borne from his complete yearning for Sam. The computer screen in the room lit up her face. She had not laughed yet, as Charlie had. The longer she sat there the more sorrow grew on her face. Charlie heard the beginnings of the metal steps below him, Sahil sat still , his eyes flashed, like a schoolboy caught. Her ponytail sat high on the back of her head. Primula interviewed the three at the same time.

" Who else knows?"

" Just us Primula"

Charlie was shocked at her somewhat somber tone, expecting to be chastised thoroughly by her.

" Sam, the complexities of your condition are known, there is no danger."

"Oh it's not mine I'm worried about, what do the others have?"

Charlie looked between the two women, who seemed to emit this wrathful field when nearby each other. Not wanting to enter it

" Guys am I missing something here? what's er."

" Apart from type 2 diabetes, which Alain had, Bikaner has heart problems, he wouldn't live long on earth, we wanted to see how he reacted to the jump to space."

" He doesn't know?! you're fucking sick, all of you"

"there's nothing he could have done Sam, we caught your disease earlier than any doctors would have, you will receive medication once we have the supplies up and running, i don't see the problem."

" so you were testing how our diseases would react to space?"

"Testing everything, i see you have performed your scientific duty."

She gave a passive aggressive smile to both of them, noted Sam's confusion.

" You didn't finish reading your file? i take it Charlie has read his, you were selected because of your high propensity to have sexual intercourse."

Charlie's face stung and his ear rang before he had time to watch the tiny Asian girl launch an open palmed slap to the side of his face. Sam now stood in front of Charlie who held his face, she looked at Primula.

"You don't get to threaten us anymore, your soldier is dead, I'm going to show Bikaner his files and we WILL be taking Bikaner with us.