One Small Step
Written in response to prompt by Pontifex: Listen to this music piece: https/watch?v=ukw1P4aZegU
What comes to your mind? What are you imagining? What do you feel listening to it?
Write something about the emotions and scenes it makes you feel!
Thank you to Bucue for beta-reading this for me in the wee hours of the night. :D
Also, nearly forgot to mention, but this was inspired by "Penrose-512 Cycles" Ch. 14 "Cycle 4444" by Mari/DrMajalis. Please check out that story on AO3 if you want to laugh and cry, sometimes in the same story! :3c /works/54113686/chapters/138133600
"Ariane. Come in, Ariane, over," Elster-512 called out over her radio.
"Hmm? What's up, over?" Ariane Yeong called back over her own radio, spinning around to face Elster as she did so.
Elster didn't immediately reply because Ariane's spinning failed to cease properly, causing her to spin round and round in place on the sole of a single boot, hopping on that foot as she tried to avoid falling.
The Land Survey/Ship Technician Replika immediately dashed over to Ariane's side to cease her revolutions…or at least, that was Elster's plan. The thing that actually happened was that Elster kept stumbling over her steps as she tried to run normally, and thus kept repeatedly losing her balance in the extremely low gravity of this environment. The stumbles continued until she lost the battle against gravity for good and began her tumble.
A tumble that took her head over hoof, rolling across the barren landscape, watching grey dust turn into starry skies and back again before she finally came to a halt on the back of her Außerirdische Verstärkte Astronautenanzug, or AVA suit for short.
Elster didn't move for a while. She merely just stared up into that black void, filled with the pinprick lights of distant stars. A few of them were colored, identifying them as the distant planets of the Sonnensystem. Two of them were undoubtedly the two worlds the Eusan Empire still held, while the rest belonged to the Eusan Nation that built her.
Yet, from this distance, all of that felt meaningless to Elster. As though the astropolitics of two warring interplanetary governments were just trifling matters that mattered not to either her or the love of her life.
Then the opaque helmet of another AVA suit came into view to block out the emptiness of the void, and pressed itself into Elster's own helmet with a dull thunk.
"Elster, are you alright?!" she heard Ariane's voice through her helmet, only slightly muffled by their respective helmets.
Elster ran a quick self-diagnostics. "Affirmative, I am undamaged," she replied.
Elster heard a sigh of relief coming from Ariane's helmet. "Thank the Red Eye," Ariane said. "Okay, let me help you back up. Easy does it."
In truth, Elster's own artificial muscles did the bulk of the work of lifting herself up, but she still appreciated the effort Ariane put in.
"Hold on, let me check for damage," Ariane said with another touch of their helmets before maneuvering around Elster, checking the oxygen tank attached to her suit's back, and then moving back in front of Elster. "Okay, no damage to anything. At the very least, you're not leaking air. Looks like the Nation actually put some truth in the Reinforced part of the AVA suit's name for once."
Elster nodded as a reply to Ariane's words…only to realize that Ariane had absolutely no way to tell that Elster was doing that underneath the gold sun visor, and so she spoke out loud: "Affirmative. The People's Navy seemed to have not cheapened out on materiel procurement this time."
Ariane immediately burst out into laughter, her helmet now practically vibrating against Elster's helmet from the shaking.
"I'm sorry, I don't know why that was…no, I do know why that was so funny, and that's why it's even funnier!" Ariane said with a final few moments of laughter that made Elster smile before she calmed back down. "So, what was it that you wanted to ask me before you took that tumble?"
Upon being reminded, Elster looked back out over that desolate, grey landscape, broken only by the massive bulk of the Penrose-512, landing gear extended and awaiting their eventual return.
"Ariane, why are here?" Elster asked. "This is just a small, nameless asteroid. Less than three kilometers in diameter. Nowhere near large enough to support an atmosphere, even with klimaforming. Not even remotely what our mission goals are. What was the point in landing here?"
Ariane lifted up a white-covered finger to her helmet, pressing on the visor there in a thinking pose.
"Well, I do have practical reasons for wanting to land here," Ariane began. "First, I wouldn't mind having a supply of ice onboard. If our both our main and backup water recyclers ever break, having that ice would be better than having no fresh water at all."
Elster nodded, more to herself than to Ariane. It was a sound idea, after all.
"Second, you mentioned that you are starting to run low on replacement parts? Well, why not take the time to mine for some raw materials to try to make parts out of while we mine for ice at the same time, yeah?"
Elster did not nod to herself this time. Yes, she had a small portable lathe for machining tools, but it was a far cry from something that could refine raw ore from this asteroid into usable parts, even assuming that this asteroid had the right ore to do so. She might be able to do…something with the tools and equipment she currently had, but it was a very big "If" and it would take a very long time before it would even be remotely usable.
Somehow, Elster must've given some tiny indication of what she was thinking, because Ariane then sighed. "I know, it's silly of me to think something like that…but I just don't want to give up. If there's even the slightest chance of us making it back to the Na…somewhere safe, then I want to seize it."
Elster stared at the golden visor in front of her, and wished that she could see Ariane's face instead of that metallic yellow hemisphere. Even without the benefit of observation of her lover's facial expressions to determine her emotional state, she could tell from her vocal tones that Ariane was troubled. However, seeing Ariane's face would be a nice bit of confirmation.
"I…understand that desire," Elster replied. "It's not rational or logical, but…I want to believe that we will live too. I just…I just want to be with you…forever."
Ariane's chuckle was what lifted Elster's spirits back from the depths of the emotional sea her mind briefly sank into. "I know. I feel the same way, Elchen. I love you too."
Their helmets were still pressed against each other to allow them to speak across the practically airless void this asteroid had as a sorry excuse of an atmosphere without need of their radios, so Elster had to fight off the utterly irrational urge to yank her and Ariane's helmets off and out of the way to kiss Ariane then and there, in the midst of this desolate landscape that was barely big enough to park the Penrose-512 on.
Which reminded Elster. "Ariane, your reply to my question…you seemed to have implied that you had other reasons beyond the practical to land here? Did I misinterpret your words again, or…?"
"Tee hee, not this time!" Ariane replied, full of glee. "But in order to answer that question: I need to ask you one first: have you ever danced in very low gravity before?"
Elster shook her head, before remembering once more and replying verbally: "Negative, I have not."
"Well, neither have I!" Ariane replied cheerfully. "And so, that's why I think we should be the ones to explore this frontier in the dancing arts here on this floating rock, where not even Eules have tread…at least, I don't think so."
"Considering the lack of a designation in the People's Navy astrogation charts, I am reasonably certain we are the first to have landed on this asteroid," Elster reported.
"Pfft! Not exactly what I meant, but I'll take it! So now then…shall we dance, my Elchen?"
Elster smiled. Even though Ariane couldn't see it, that question made Elster feel so happy that she couldn't help but smile.
"We shall, my Ariane," Elster replied.
With that said, their helmets finally separated, and they began to dance.
At first, it was just a slow turn as they shuffled around, getting the hang of the ultra-low gravity. Then Ariane changed things up a bit by hopping around, with each hop carrying her up at least a third of a meter. Just when Elster was thinking about using her radio to tell Ariane to be more careful, Ariane suddenly bunched up her legs, and leaped.
Elster kept a tight grip on Ariane as her jump carried her soaring upwards. The gravity was so low that if Elster hadn't been holding onto Ariane's hands, she was genuinely afraid of the possibility of Ariane exceeding the asteroid's escape velocity with a mere jump. Luckily, Ariane's leap only resulted in her practically performing a handstand on top of Elster, waving her legs around as Elster stumbled around, trying not to lose her balance before slowly bringing Ariane back down to land.
"Ariane, please do not do that again. It was very dangerous, over," Elster radioed.
"It was…but it was also very fun," Ariane radioed back, giggling as she did so. "Want to try it out with me? With a bit less force than I did? Pleeease, over?"
Elster wanted to disagree, citing safety protocols, but the power of Ariane's pleading stare still somehow reached her even without actually being able to see Ariane's face.
"Okay, but just once, over," Elster conceded.
"Waai!" Ariane cheered, the word sounding very familiar to Elster, briefly invoking an image of a brown-haired Gestalt women wearing a ponytail cheering before Elster shook it off. "Come on then, on my count to three. One. Two. Three!"
On that number, Elster leapt up at the same time Ariane did. For a moment, well and long, Elster felt like she was soaring through the air with Ariane, gravity losing its grip on the both of them to finally allow them to fly free, before that gravity finally exerted itself at long long, bringing them back down to land back on the asteroid with a cloud of dust.
"Tee hee, you like it? Over?" Ariane asked.
Elster hadn't just liked it. She was grinning underneath her helmet like a fool. " Yes, I did! Can…can we do another? This time…perhaps with a gentle spin? Er, over?"
Ariane's giggles to that question was like hearing a wind chimes clinking and clanking in the breeze. Elster also had no idea where this memory came from, but this was one she enjoyed, especially since Ariane was there in the memory with her.
"How about you do the count this time then?" Ariane asked. "Since you're the one suggesting the spin before I did, over?"
"Uh, affirmative then. Erm…then one. Two. Three!"
The slight spin, as it turned out, was a very good idea. It resulted in Elster revolving gently with Ariane in the space above the asteroid, listening to Ariane laugh over radio as the stars lazily spun around Ariane herself. By the time they lowered back to the dusty land, Elster was laughing along with her.
The two continued to dance long after that. It took a very long time before they were actually able to set up the portable mining platform. After all, why else would they be here on this desolate rock after flying on a tin can far from home if not to enjoy all the fun it could provide them?