One of the passengers disturbs Ed as she asks if she can join him. Ed has seen her several times before, in fact he has the strong feeling that she's stalking him, she seems to turn up whenever he appears on the passenger decks. However, never before has she been this forward to actually request to sit at the same table. If it weren't for the fact that Ed has Jenny, he would be quite flattered by her attention, after all she was quite good looking and from what one of the crew said recently, she was quite rich. Ed was surprised that she was in this cafeteria, after all the first class passengers have their own serviced restaurant on the deck above and by all accounts the fittings were far more luxurious and comfortable.
The passenger is still awaiting Ed's response, her face doing the Rhojastian equivalent of smiling, her lower face carries subtle shades and colouration of red, orange and yellow.
Ed says, "Sorry, please take a seat, I was just watching a craft that is travelling ahead of us."
She gracefully lowers herself into the seat next to Ed's. She leans in towards Ed, making him feel quite uncomfortable. Strange thing, personal space and feeling quite threatened or at least uncomfortable if someone moves into it. She senses there's something wrong, as Rhojastian's are quite sensitive, whilst they are unable to read minds they can pick up on body language and pheromones. They are at the same time, quite blunt at times, whilst also being quite sensitive. She moves away from Ed and her facial colouration changes somewhat for a brief time, then returns to the smile colouration again. She asks Ed his name.
Ed apologises for not introducing himself earlier, then tells her his name and that he is one of the crew.
She replies that the latter fact was self evident by the uniform. Then she says that she would like to know more about the craft that Ed was observing.
Ed gets the feeling that she is just trying to make polite conversation and that she was hoping to build on that conversation. Ed thinks that provided he makes it clear that he's just being a good host and that there's nothing more, it should be alright to engage in her seeking of someone to talk to. After all perhaps she's fed up with the stuffy lot upstairs. Ed knows all about them, he was forced to attend a function earlier in the flight. He asks her name and adds if he may be permitted to ask such a thing.
Again she colours a smile, but tinged with something else, but Ed does not know what the extra element means; it is very attractive however.
She tells Ed that her real name would be unpronounceable to Ed, but his kind have often referred to her as Penelope.
Even if this is not her real name, at least Ed now feels a little more comfortable having a name to refer to her by. Ed is about to comment that it was a nice name, but remembers it is not exactly her name.
Penelope remarks on the fact that Ed still seems to be somewhat uncomfortable and in an effort to settle him, she suggests that he 'spill the beans'. Ed smiles at the use of the particular phrase in the current context. Penelope says "That is better tell me about the travelling ahead ."
Ed is confused at first, then remembers their opening conversation about the Garet-dwes-kenstia. He quickly recovers and stares out of the window for a short while, trying to pick up on the current location of the Garet-dwes-kenstia. He soon spots it and points towards it, he tells Penelope the name of the craft and the fact that he is impressed with the speed at which it is crossing the stars in front of them. He adds that the cargo apparently is foodstuffs bound for Hethianti 3 and 4. Ed glances away from the window back towards Penelope. Her yellow and green eyes are watching him with great attentiveness. Ed notices that they are very pretty, the green and yellow swirls blending into each other in a fascinating pattern, that he feels drawn towards. It is like watching a beautiful galaxy arrangement or the dawn sky at Althos 6.
Penelope says that she is most impressed with the interest with which Ed speaks about what many would consider an everyday event. She adds that she admires Ed's..... she pauses as she searches for the appropriate words that she seeks, then continues, that she knows not the exact words that she wishes to say, but hopes her meaning is clear, then she says love that he throws into what he is saying.
Ed corrects Penelope, saying that thinks she is looking for the phrase she 'admires his passion'.
Penelope, ignores his comment and says that she admires the beauty and concentration of the humanist eye, the way that the central dark part changes size as it becomes interested in something.
Her honesty is a little alarming to Ed and he finds himself having to look away.
Penelope is herself somewhat alarmed now as she asks whether she has offended him, she is most apologetic saying that it would be her last wish to do such a thing.
Ed recalls that he was also admiring her eyes in a similar fashion and putting the mutual fascination purely into the domain of species interest in each other's appearance and behaviours made it alright. He decides that it is his turn to apologise for his reaction.
Penelope quite philosophically remarks that they cannot help their frames automatic reactions. Ed remembers that the Rhojastian's refer to their bodies as frames. It was Mickey who first told him this, as they were observing another Rhojastian passenger on a flight that they were both crewing. Only on that flight Mickey was standing in for a steward, for extra moolar as he put it. He had over spent on his previous trip and need extra money so volunteered for the extra tour.
Ed agrees with Penelope and they start to chat about the journey thus far, exchanging notes about other passengers that they had encountered. The time passes quite quickly and pleasantly.
Ed glances at the cafeteria clock and suddenly realises that he should be getting some sleep, otherwise he will be too tired when it comes to his next shift and it wouldn't do to report to the captain yawning.
Penelope asks what is wrong.
Ed tells her that he has to get some shut eye. Penelope does not understand this. So Ed explains that it is his rest period.
Penelope asks if he would like her to join him.
Ed is not sure how to answer this, then decides that he best simply explain that he needs sleep and that perhaps they could meet up the following day, when he has finished his next shift. He smiles at her to reassure her that she has upset him.
Penelope's smile colouration returns and she holds out her hand. Ed is unsure if he should shake it or kiss it like they used to do in old videos. He settles on gently shaking her hand and he says, "Au revoir until we meet again tomorrow."
Penelope remarks that she has not heard such a pleasant phrase from a humanist before.
Ed departs before he gets engaged in further conversation.
~~~~~~~~
Chapter 7 - Appearing On The Arrivals Board?
Despite the fact that he really should have been sleeping, Ed had been so worried about the Kog-zey-enian craft and whether it would do something to them, that he had spent a few hours continuing to monitor the Garet-dwes-kenstia. However, nothing had happened.
When Ed gets up for his next shift, he is somewhat bleary eyed and rather groggy, but he was glad that there was only about six hours left on this trip. He had been quite on edge about that Kog-zey-enian craft and then on top of that being harassed by that Rhojastian passenger, what was her name again, oh yes Penelope. Although she was quite beautiful and for her to pick on Ed to be her companion, said something for his good looks and charm. He laughs at himself for boosting his own self esteem, he also remembers that the Rhojastian vision of beauty was not the same judgement of that of a human, their vision is somewhat extended in terms of the spectrum of wavelengths they can detect. Some say that they can even see the 'aura' that is believed by a few, to surround every human. Ed consoles himself with the thought that even though Penelope sees Ed differently to a human female, she still saw him as a beautiful person. This made him feel good. Then he remembers Jenny, he wonders what she would make of a female of another species making eyes at her Ed. He smiles as he imagines her gettin
g jealous. Then thinks that she really would have nothing to be jealous of, Ed was merely being kind to someone travelling alone in deep space. He was still Jenny's Ed.
As Ed enters the cafeteria to get breakfast, he spots her, Penelope, sitting alone at the window, staring out into space. After collecting his food, he wonders whether to join her or not, then thinks it would be a snub and rude not to. He stands by Penelope and gently asks, "Is this seat taken?"
Penelope looks up at Ed and her colouration instantly changes to a large smile. She greets Ed , invites him to sit down and asks how his rest period went.
Ed wonders if the last question is loaded in any way, but answers, "Not too good, took ages to get off to sleep."
Penelope remarks something about it explaining his looks.
Ed is not quite sure how to take this at first, then decides he is just being too sensitive, after all his quick glance at himself in the mirror earlier showed that he looked as bad as he felt... groggy! So for an alien to also detect this, was not amazing, in fact quite ordinary. He smiles at his own stupidity.
Penelope remarks, that this is a better look for him.
Ed asks if Penelope's rest period went well. To which she informs him that her species do not need a rest period. Which reminded her, that she wanted to ask why humans had to have a rest period, it seemed to be a totally unproductive thing to do.
Ed explains that it is time for the human brain to sort things out, that it has not had time to do during the day.
Penelope is fascinated that the human brain needs such time as she explains that the Rhojastian brain is triple threaded and can process things in background, avoiding the need for any unproductive time.
Ed asks if Rhojastian's dream, then has to explain the concept to Penelope, as she does not understand what he is asking her. Penelope explains something akin to the human daydream, she adds that in their case, this daydreaming can take place whilst they are engaged in other activities. A large smile comes over her face as she recalls something. Ed now used to her smiles, asks what has made her smile. Her colouration changes quickly, to a somewhat dull colouration, then returns to somewhat neutral colours and she explains that when she was the Rhojastian equivalent of a teenager she was particularly good at studying and dreaming as Ed had referred to it as. Ed asks if the Rhojastian's can still carry out a conversation whilst dreaming. Penelope replies that they can and its what makes life very interesting at times, especially if they get the dream sequence and real life mixed up and start talking about their dream, whilst still having the dream.
Ed finishes up his breakfast, glances at the cafeteria wall display and remarks that he should get a move on, as he needs to report for his shift.
Penelope says that it is a real shame that Ed can't stay and wouldn't the captain understand that he was keeping a passenger happy. Ed says that as he is employed as a pilot and not cabin crew, he really should concentrate on getting the craft to its destination. He glances again at the wall display and decides that it probably won't hurt to grab another coffee and chat for a few minutes longer. He tells Penelope that he is just going to grab a coffee. As he is at the vender, another Rhojastian walks into the cafeteria and sits down where Ed was sitting, there appears to be a bit of fuss being kicked up, although Ed does not understand what is being said, he gathers that the latest Rhojastian seems to be querying why there are meal things for two people at Penelope's table.
Ed decides, once he has collected his coffee, that this could be Penelope's partner and maybe it would be best for Ed to slip away. He looks back just as he is about to leave the cafeteria. He sees Penelope looking straight at him. By the time the other Rhojastian looks around, Ed is gone.
It seems a bit of a relief to be reporting for duty, rather than facing the music with Penelope's partner, if that is what he is. Although, Ed smiles, as he recalls the phrase 'face the music', face the music for what, all they were doing was chatting. But then many species get very jealous over the smallest of things, that they see as a threat to their partnerships. Come to that, it included Ed's own species.
The Captain, his usual cheery self, does the handover bit, which he could have quite easily covered by saying that nothing happened, they were still on course and target for arrival. Instead, he had run through various readings and course changes that were all standard for this journey. Ed patiently listened, whilst all the time thinking, 'Why don't you get off to your supper and bed and leave me in peace.'
Eventually the captain says that he is handing over to Ed and that he'll see him when they are about to land. With that he glides out of the room. Ed does his dutiful instrument and screen checks and confirms everything is 'tickety boo'. A silly phrase that his Dad often used when he was looking after Ed and Paul and Maria would comm him to check that everything was alright, he'd say everything was 'tickety boo'. Funny how parents sayings stay with you and you end up using them yourself, thought Ed to himself. Then he thinks, right six hours and three course corrections to kill, just what was he going to do to keep himself sane? Then he remembered that musivid collection he had downloaded onto his z-aphmediator. Quite a handy device, could translate most of the common languages at the drop of an apsicon seed and without being asked to. It also ran all sorts of useful and a heck of a lot of not so useful but fun applications, had a massive library capacity for media files including the latest rage in submersive games, although Maria had refused to let Ed and Paul get the implants to be able to use those. They would have convinced her, had it not been for the fact that Edward had come down on the side of supporting her, saying that the implants were dangerous and the games likewise, potentially giving the games makers ability to override individual's self will and instead superimposing their own will in terms of making reality seem like a game and therefore wreaking havoc and mayhem on society. Edward was convinced that there was a plot to take over the universe and that these implants and games were merely to tool to carry out the plot. Edward was not the only one to think in such a way, so the implant manufacturers and games designers had an extreme mountain to climb to get the technology accepted. The implant makers had taken to incorporating the technology into devices like the Z-aphmediator for free. Although there was actually little point, as without the implant it didn't work. Edward had been delighted that the implant manufacturers were on the brink of going 'bust' as he put it or chapter 11 as one of Ed's mates had referred to the state.
Ed had noted that those friends who had the implant and there were only a handful, seemed to have become quite dull and uninteresting, only ranting on about this or that game. It seemed as if they were only happy when actually immersed in a game. A few had flunked Academy and left with poor or no qualifications. So it probably was a good thing that Maria and Edward had insisted that Ed and Paul didn't have the implants.
Ed soon pulls up the musivids and the flight deck is soon ringing with the sounds of the latest and most sub-zero sounds around. Ed still does his dutiful instrument checks gently correcting things that he finds that need attention, whilst enjoying the music and 3-d video presentations.
The remainder of the journey passes without event, but is considerably more cheerful with Ed's entertainment. He makes sure that he turns it off and packs it away long before the captain returns to the flight deck. The final approach and landing goes to plan, in fact by the book.
Ed and the captain are at the exit as the passengers leave. Ed sees Penelope and her partner leave, she glances at Ed as she passes by, her partner still seems to be giving her her grief. Ed smiles and Penelope returns a beautiful rainbow smile.
Ed is at the same time glad that the harassment is over, but equally sad to see Penelope go, as he was quite enjoying finding out more about her species, it was his first speaking encounter with a Rhojastian and would certainly remain as a colourful one. Ed smiles at his intentional pun.
Ed is glad when the last passenger leaves, a chance for a spot of shore l
eave. He had not been to the planet of Deslax before. Apparently it had some quite impressive rock structures, although they will probably not be stopping over long enough for Ed to visit those. Ed asks the captain if he was needed any further. The captain says that he will 'clean up', although quite what he meant by that, Ed couldn't even hazard a guess, as he had written up all the logs and checked that everything was shut down. Eagerly Ed dashes off to his cabin to fetch his overnight bag, which he had already packed in anticipation of this moment.
By the time Ed got back to the exit, the captain had long disappeared and there was only one member of crew on duty at the doorway. Enviously they see Ed off the craft.
The space port itself is very large and airy, the roof of the main construct is quite a high see through dome. The asteroid ring could clearly be seen above them. Now that was a nightmare to navigate through without getting the craft holed, definitely a task that Ed would not have been trusted to do a couple of months back. In fact he was quite proud of the way he navigated the craft so skilfully through and without a scratch. The captain didn't say a thing as Ed announced that they were safely through. Ed expected something, even a bit of criticism. It was almost as if Ed hadn't actually piloted the craft at all and it had been on autopilot.