Rende stepped off the turbolift and walked down the short corridor to their quarters. Home for now. She missed the estate on Earth. She missed the tiny town, and the people who lived there. But she loved serving. Eldorin did too, or he wouldn’t keep coming back with her. These newer ships had so much luxury to them. The quarters were more like a small apartment than a simple berth. She remembered serving on an old Bonaventure class ship, back when the Federation was just a new born. Couples didn’t serve together then, but she and Eldorin had. She’d had a bunk with the fellow marines and Eldorin had had a single. Eventually they’d been given a double. That mean bunk beds, both twins. Eldorin had converted the top bunk into a work space for tinkering with odds and ends, and for her to keep her weapons cleaned and maintained. They’d shared the remaining twin, but back then they didn’t have to contend with old joints and injuries.

As she entered she stopped at the shelf of pictures, fingers trailing over the same face as they moved from one to the next, like she did every time she passed by them. She picked up one: a much younger Rende with a young boy, about 10 digging in the dirt with small tools and brushes. “Counselor says I should talk to you even though you aren’t here.” She carries the picture into the kitchen with her setting it down on the counter. She turns away, old habits and begins to clean the coffee mug. “Do you remember making this? You wouldn’t have been old enough in that picture. You made these in high school. Home economics. You loved it, cooking, sewing, interior design. You spent weeks learning how to use the loom to weave these fabric swatches. Then you got so frustrated because the loom was so big and you’d never have time to make the fabric swatch. You and Dad spent four days locked in his work shed building a smaller loom from scratch.” Rende set the cleaned cup aside on a towel to dry.
She opened the small fridge and pulled out what looked like a glass beer bottle. It was Cidona, a sweet and frizzy apple soda. Tabris’ favorite drink. “You took both those swatches and put them inside of travel mugs for us because of how much Dad likes his coffee. He still does. He can’t function until he’s had at least one cup. I have crates in the cargo bay of his favorite blend.” She twists the top off the bottle and sips at it a bitter sweet smile crossing her face. “Then that summer you spent every day with old Maggie on her sheep farm. You wanted to know how thread was made and dyed. You learned to sheer sheep. That poor ram, his wool never did grow back right after that. But you learned to card and spin and dye the wool.” She picked up the picture and carried it with her drink to the couch and sat down with a soft laugh. “Do you remember when you were trying to make green thread? You slipped near the vat and fell in, and came out totally green and burned. The burns healed fairly quickly, they were gone before the green was.”
Rend, CO