***Looks like there'll be a chapter 7 to this, since after I added the character, it went a little all over the map. I just need to paste her into what I wrote for the ending.
I didn't intend it, but when I was looking for a name, I wanted to stay middle of the road, but what came to me after I defined her personality in my head was Mischka (MEESHKA) - and I don't even know why.
It got stupid after I added her last name, going for the unusual in the first name and yet something more commonplace in the surname, but it worked for me and I was a little satisfied - until somebody began to sing an old ad song - which I'll just call the wiener song, and we laughed our asses off.
And I've had that thing in my head now for half a week! @#%@^$#
Americans and a few Canadians will probably see what I mean when they get to her name.
0_o
****
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In the event, it hadn't been all that much of a deal.
As much of a concern as the automated awakening might have been to Ryan, it worked flawlessly and he awoke to the sounds of radio traffic.
Since it took more than a minute to wake up out of cryo in any event, Ryan guessed that the shipping lane that they were a little close to must be one of the busier ones. As he was 'coming around', the first thing that he did was to hit the releases for the cryo-juice sleeve and use his other arm to swivel the smaller status panel toward his field of view so that he could see what was what.
He noted right off that the internal gravity had come on, so that was good.
He hated pissing into a plastic bag.
Everything seemed to be about perfect, he thought as he looked at the timer display on the cryo panel when he'd gotten up a little carefully after being in the same position for a while. It brought him the usual aches and pains. They'd been traveling for slightly more than two months.
That reminded him that he was parched and needed to drink. It also reminded him that his bladder was full. He sighed. A vicious cycle.
He walked over to the commander's chair and retracted the screen shields to have a look and no surprise, it looked exactly as what he'd seen when he'd been preparing to go under, only the positions of some of the stars had changed, since they'd covered a lot of uh, space in the meantime.
He found a positional marker beacon not all that far off and he queried it so that he could place their present position rather exactly.
Ryan almost broke into a wide grin when he learned that there was a trading post – Nanworth Colony, the ID tag flashed at him – within about two days of easy motoring at sub-jump velocity. By then, two days in the slow lane sounded just fine to Ryan. He hit the can and then headed off for a quick shower, quick being the operative word, given the rather finite supply of water available for washing.
It was while he was in there that the wants of his body came to him. He'd forgotten about it.
It was always this way coming out of cryo, he sighed, noting that at the moment, he felt the need to do a rather impossible combination of things; eat, sing, screw, eat, get a little drunk, have a cigarette – even after years of abstinence – screw, eat, screw and last of all, screw.
He only gave in to one of them, and it wasn't even on the list directly. Ryan walked over to look at the two people that he was traveling with, and after kissing them once very lightly, he leaned against a bulkhead and began to masturbate. Given the way that he felt, and the length of time that he'd been under, it didn't take too long, wasn't terribly invasive as far as Taela and Shorty were concerned, and it felt just great.
He gave in to another desire then and made himself a cup of instant coffee with the dwindling supply of the powder from out of the survival packs carried in the shuttle.
He did his best not to try to calculate just how old the stuff might have been at this point, but it just had to be well over a decade old, and that was from the view that it had traveled with him. From the view of the place where it had been grown, it had to be well over a century by now.
He looked at the little packet in his hand for a moment. If nothing else, it told him that the packaging industry had their shit down pretty good.
He finished the cup a little slowly, not knowing exactly when he might have a chance at another in the next little while, and he rinsed out the mug before he placed it back in the rack under his name and re-clamped it into place. Then he walked over to set the controls on Taela's bed to awaken her slowly.
After that, he sat down next to her and he just looked at her as she slept.
He'd gotten his wish, he thought. He had the love of this lovely person. He knew that just about as soon as she figured out that they'd be at a place in a couple of days where there were likely human females walking around, she'd begin to feel a little uncertain.
She'd wonder how she measured up in his eyes against them. It made him smile a little and shake his head. He knew what he wanted forever, and she was lying right there in front of him, not far away from the other person who'd grabbed his heart in a tight grip in the most surprising way, given that he'd never had a thought in his life before of loving another male.
Now, ...
He couldn't imagine living without them.
But he was well aware of the way that life can take a sudden left turn. It had happened to him before. All that he could do was what he did, finally.
They couldn't hear him as he spoke, but that didn't matter to Ryan. He promised them that if he could, he'd do his best to always take care of their hearts.
It caused his eyes to sting a little and he stepped away long enough to wipe his eyes and tell himself not to be an idiot and that it was only the effects of coming out of cryo.
But he knew better.
Taela opened her eyes a few minutes later and looked up as soon as she could focus her eyes and she smiled. The moment was worth a lot to Ryan.
