Snip

Exiting the doors, Mason turned left and began to look for a turbo lift. “How many bags did you pack as carry on anyway?” He asked Paris, “Couldn’t you have packed most of this stuff into a suitcase and let the cargo crew look after it? What makes this stuff so important?”

“And have them say they lost the luggage like they did that time we went to Zino II, Iota Caeli II, Mira V, Delta Persei IV, Cirri V,” Paris began to rattle off all the shore leaves they had taken over the past year resulting in lost luggage. “No way. I am not taking the chance we are gonna look like hobos.” The swish of the turbo doors closing ended her statement as they walked in.

“Ah, here we are,” he stopped by the first turbo-lift they came to. “Now it’s just a short ride and walk to our room, after you.”

As they entered the turbo, Paris leaned against the wall and drummed her hands in a bored rhythm on the wall. “Left,” she said out loud for no reason. Turning to face Mason she repeated what she said. “Babe the man said left. You said right. You meant right as in right we understand and not right as in step off deck seven and go right because I heard him say right not left.”

As the doors opened and Mason and Paris stepped out of the turbo-lift, Mason automatically turned right and began to walk, counting his paces in his head and looking at the room numbers. “Baby,” he said, sounding like he had realized his coffee was cold, “Why do these doors run from 672 downwards?” Stopping a few paces later he looked at the door they had been told was their room.

“Paris, love of my life and gem in my dungeon. Did you book our quarters in the ships Phaser Array Maintenance Access room by any chance?”

Cmdr Black, XO

“No, but that would be cool as hell wouldn’t it,” Paris had a very excited tone to her voice, “and a step up from the last office of your living room. I mean think about the options. Someone annoys you, you can shoot them. Some is a dork and you not only can assign him to clean the phasers but glare at him from your desk the entire time. I don’t know sexy, it could be a win-win situation for everyone. Oh oh oh,” she smiled larger and her eyes got that wide-eyed look showing Paris was about to burst with excitement. “We can be office mates. I am the Armorer chief. This,” she gestured, “is probably someplace I get to work at all the time. Just think of it. We can work and live together for almost twenty-four hours a day. Isn’t that going to be the best,” she hugged him turning her face away so he could not see it. “I mean how lucky can we be!”

“Surely we can’t be that lucky,” he muttered, trying hard to keep the cheeky sarcastic tone out of his voice but grinning all the same.

The reason for this was Paris did not want Mason to see how she was struggling not to laugh. Yes, she loved her fiance desperately but the saying distance makes the heart grow fonder was meant for married people that worked together. She and Mason would kill each other if they had to share every ten-foot by ten-foot space cheek to cheek. Still, it was funny to make Mason be the one claiming he didn’t want it.

Lt. Commander Paris Carisi security

“Lets keep going, this is clearly not our room. We go that way,” he pointed in the direction they had come from, then hoisted one of her bags with a grunt over his shoulder. “Why does this remind me of when those two new crew arrived on the Asimov shortly before we left? Duncan’s sister and that New Zealander called Darius wasn’t it? I’m sure he was stuck carrying her bags around like some porter as well and they looked even more formidable than these ones. Are you sure you aren’t smuggling a small moon on board piece by piece Paris?”

Cmdr Black, XO

“Stop I loved Megan. Heck I was going to ask you to pull a few strings and make them come with us. I heard a rumor that some doctor and security chief basically got shanghaied by a captain after they delivered his baby in a shuttle on the way back from a wedding. I saw it from a girl I met named Jasmine who forwarded from a spacebook post by a girl named Heidi who was friends with a chick named Jessica. Kinda makes you wonder if it’s true or not. You know how space oil is. Everyone is only at their best in Spacebook and if they aren’t there is some weird inspirational garden with a catchy phrase that means nothing but will get ten thousand thumbs up or lord help when the poster finds out you didn’t send some love after reading,” Paris rambled on as they walked looking for their new quarters.

“What do you mean you loved Megan?” Mason looked at her with a raised eyebrow. “You hardly mentioned her from the moment they joined the Asimov, I thought she wasn’t on your radar at all.” He paused slightly and looked ahead, then back the way they had come. “Does this corridor look familiar to you?”

“No, she was the one with Darius. I am talking about Allison. They are both hot blondes so I can see how you get us mixed up but I am the hottest one right? You know like in the series of hot, hotter, hottest,” Paris winked at Mason. “Anyway, apparently Ally and some guy she is seeing that is built like Adonis himself descended from Mount Olympus. The guy sings, can snap your neck like a chicken, shoot the wings off a fly and has a gaze that makes Ally beat the women off with a stick,” Paris explained sighing deeply. Ricky or Rico or whatever her friend’s boyfriend’s name was could not hold a candle to Mason but he was great eye candy. “They were the ones that got hijacked and no it looks just like all the other corridors.”

“You know maybe we should ask someone where we are going instead of roaming about like two zombies. I mean XO’s get lost all the time. No one will think anything if we stop for directions,” Paris teased him.

Lt commander. Parisi (soon to be married)

“Noooo,” Mason said, letting it run into a drawn out answer. “XO’s do not get lost all the time, and anyway I am sure that this time of night most people are asleep and waiting for their next shift, best not to wake them and make a fuss, especially if we are like a couple of zombies.” Mason grinned and took Paris’ hand, then pulled her into a turbo lift. “Lets try the next floor, see if we get lucky.”

Cmdr Black, XO

“Or maybe we get lucky in the turbo,” Paris hit the button for the emergency stop. The ride came to an abrupt halt. The occupants didn’t feel it due to the inertial dampeners but they could hear the metal and plastic moan a bit from the strain. Pushing off the wall Paris moved in front of Mason wrapping her arms around his neck. “Thank you,” she said softly pressing her lips to his.

“For being you,” she responded looking deep in his eyes. “For this,” she gestured around her. The family question had been raised, dealt with, and solved but his transfer to the Odin was all for her or at least that is how Paris viewed it. Mason had been thrilled with the fast little ship and small crew. He thrived on knowing everyone personally yet for all the Asimov offered, it did not give her one thing: the chance to have a family. The Asimov was not a family ship so in order to have what she wanted Paris was going to have to give up her dream and ride her career out with Mason or have her dream and spend weeks to months without her best friend by her side. It was a situation she struggled with until he got the Odin.

Lt. Commander Paris Carisi