He exhales deeply. “O where to begin? Tonight was one of the best nights of my life. That I can say for certain. What I can’t say for certain is what caused it. I guess I should say what made this night the best night of my life. This night started off pretty lousy actually. It was the end of a very long and tiring mining operation and as I was entering my office to finish some work when a fire alarm sounded in the hangar. I ran over to the source of the alarm to see the hulk I had used for the op covered in fire suppressant foam. When I pulled up the hangar video logs I saw one of the exhaust ports on the side had overheated and caught on fire. By this time the hulk was completely powered down and there was no hint of further fire danger. I didn’t want to make the crew work all night on something that could have been my fault so I sent them home. I do tend to push my equipment hard and I suspect that in this case I pushed it a little too hard. I swear that darn thing is trying to kill me to pay me back for pushing it. Any way, after they left I cleaned off all of the foam and began disassembling the exhaust port to find where the problem was, as a result I was covered head to toe in soot.
He pauses to finish off the contents of his cup and refills it with the bottle sitting on his desk. He leans back into his chair and takes another deep breath. A small smile starts to grow on his face. “About an hour after I started working on the vent, a Paladin-class marauder decides it wanted to park in my hangar. Again, this is where I am a little too paranoid but what would you do if a marauder came into your hangar unannounced? I hide as best I could inside the exhaust vent and watched the ship for any signs of weapons activity. After a minute, I noticed the ship was powering down and docking, that calmed me down and after a few seconds thought, I had a slight guess as to who the pilot was. I got down from my hulk and walked to the docking ring and my guess was confirmed. It was Selkie. When I saw the name on the docking control screen it was all I could do to keep from jumping up and down in celebration. It had been so long since I had seen or heard from her that I was beginning to worry if I had done something wrong. I stood at the control screen for what felt like hours but in reality it was only minutes. Had I thought about it I would have run and changed into something cleaner real quick but I was too excited to think about anything else but seeing Selkie.
The smile that had started to creep across his face is now ear to ear, very wide, and very deep. His eyes close slowly, like someone would do if they were trying to relive a memory. “I saw her come out of the ship and start walking towards the hulk I was working on. I tried to walk towards her but I think I did more of a light jog then an actual walk.” He laughs softly. “I also called her name out and waved my arms so she would know where I was. She saw me and ran up to me and hugged me. I was so happy to have her in my arms I just held her and lifted her off her feet. I had forgotten how dirty I was until she pulled her head back to look at me and the side of her head that had touched mine was black.” He laughs heartily. “The smile that was on her face was a lot wider then I had ever seen it and her tone was stress free. I apologized for getting soot all over her and she just laughed, and asked if I wanted to have some coffee. I instantly said yes and took her to my office.”
“When we got to my office I motioned for her to sit on the couch and I started up my coffee maker. While we waited for the coffee to brew we started talking.” Opens his eyes and looks at a part of the wall that is outside of the camera view. If it is actually possible his smile has gotten bigger. “In our conversation she talked about how she had made peace with her past and was ready to move onto something better. I was delighted to hear this. When I first meet her she was in her own world afraid to let anyone in. Now she had left her world behind and was ready to come back to the universe. After she said she was ready to move onto something better I asked her if there was anything I could do to help her.”
“After I said that she got up and walked over to me, unzipped the top part of my suit and said there was something I could do to help her find that something better. I honestly had no idea what I was supposed to do at that point.” He continues to look at something off camera and although he still has a very large smile on his face, he has a hint of confusion and curiosity as well. “Up until tonight the closest we had ever come to intimacy was a goodnight kiss at the end of a date. Whenever she thought we were going to have intercourse she would immediately shutdown the conversation and try to end the date. Now she is looking at me with a seductive smile and has her hands on my chest. Then she unzips the top part of her suit revealing her chest underneath.” Laughs heartedly again but still has the same look on his face and he takes drink of from his cup. “I may be slow on picking up signs from people but I’m not that slow. So after that prompting from her we went on to have fun on a much more personal level and that’s all I will say about that.”
Several minutes go bye as Adrastus just looks at something off screen occasionally taking a drink from his cup. When he finally drinks the cup empty he refills it and the large smile on his face fades to a smaller
smile, confusion and curiosity become readily apparent on his face. He takes a deep breath and looks back at the camera. “While I am extremely delighted to see Selkie this happy and carefree I can’t help but wonder what caused her sudden change in moods and attitudes. I would like to think I had something to do with her change in attitude but I didn’t think I had that big of a effect on her. I wanted to bring her out of her little world and show her that there is so much more to life then dwelling on bad memories’ and wondering what disaster tomorrow will bring. And judging by what happened tonight I would say she has, and that makes me happier than words can convey.”
Adrastus very large smile returns and he looks at the wall behind the camera. After several minutes of gazing at the wall he opens up a drawer in his desk and begins rummaging around until he finds what looks like a coin. He holds it up to the light revealing that it is actually a medallion. While the camera doesn’t zoom in on the medallion it is obvious that despite its shine the medallion is somewhat damaged. After he looks at the medallion for several minutes he puts it in one of his chest pockets, gets up, and walks towards the camera and eventually out of its view. A few seconds later the camera turns off.
