Chapter Text
It was all a bit overwhelming. I mean, me, in the same room as Commander Reid Wisemen, Jeremy Hanson and Christina Koch these people who are literally going the furthest any human has gone before.
“Leah?”
It was Dave, my supervisor. Asking about.. the expedition? Shit. I had completely zoned out. They must think I’m an idiot.
I looked around the room, Commander Wiseman and Hanson were looking at me expectantly, but Commander Koch had a different expression. She looked almost, understanding?
Dave looked pissed.
“It’ll be in two months, probably the beginning of September for a couple days.” Commander Knoch said, trying to give me a subtle clue.
“Right! Yes! Just send me the contact information for the Canadian team and I will give them my written OK.”
Dave looked relieved.
“Awesome! Well, that's all for the briefing, I’ll get the rest of it sorted out before the end of the week so you all can make the necessary arrangements. Dismissed.”
Thank God. No more making a fool of myself in front of a room full of astronauts and my boss.
I scramble to get my laptop and briefing notes off the conference table as everyone files out, when I see a pair of hands cross into my frantic tunnel vision as they start collecting my notes. It takes a second for me to process whose they are, the blue garmin watch, muscular forearms, when I hear her.
“You ok? You looked a little.. out of it for a second?”
It’s Commander Koch. Of course.
I look up, maybe a little too quickly.
“Oh! I didn’t mean to scare you!”
Shit
“No- no no worries” I say. “I’m just a little bit tired or overwhelmed or both? I mean this has been my dream for so many years and now I’m in it-” I’m rambling.
“Sorry. Yes. I’m all good thank you Commander Koch”.
“Hey, it’s ok! I totally get it. This is an exciting time!” she says as she hands the last of my notes to me. “Ha, I like your sticker!” she adds, pointing to my ‘This rocks’ sticker I added to the bottom corner for my work computer.
I blush a little, out of embarrassment?
“Looks super government issued” she says.
“Oh! Yeah, uh, I added it in 2020 when I was first hired as an intern and was working from home. No one has told me to take it off yet.. Which is probably a good thing because I don’t think I could even get it off at this point. It’s probably hermetically sealed to this thing!”
Stop. Talking.
She just smiles and holds the door open for me. I nod at her as I go through first.
“They better not! It’s great.” she says
The office area we are in is empty, it seems like everyone filtered out and took the lights with them.
“Thanks! And thank you for saving me back there. I was kinda drowning”
“Hey of course you’re a part of the team. I’ve got your back.”
I don’t know what to say so I just smile and look down. She puts her hand on my upper arm and forces me to make eye contact as she looks down and I look up.
“I’m serious. You’re the real deal, and I’m super excited to get to work with you.”
I exhale. This cannot be real.
“Thanks” is all I can say.
Why am I feeling like this? Do I have a crush on Commander Koch? This is so bad, she’s my boss? My boss's boss? But the way she grabbed my arm-
I’m pulled out of my thoughts as she says “Also, just call me Christina”
She had told me that at the beginning of the briefing when we were all doing introductions. I had forgotten.
“Right, yes sorry.”
She just laughs a little.
“No worries. Are you on your way out?”
It was 17:30. That briefing had taken an hour?
“No I uh, have a couple more samples to catalog. That meeting went way longer than I was expecting.”
“No wonder you set your department's quota. You really put the time in” she says
“What?”
“For a while there Reid was joking that geology was a one person department because all the reports we see only have your name on them.”
“You, you read my reports?”
She laughs again “Yeah, and I expect we will be reading a lot more of them as we prepare to go to Canada for the creator expedition.”
Why can ai not stop blushing. It’s embarrassing.
“Wow, ok, well thank you.” I say earnestly.
People are reading your reports. Commander- Christiana Koch is reading your reports, and she thinks they're good.
“Hey well I will see you around. It was really nice to meet you Leah.”
“Yeah- Yes! You too!” I say probably too eagerly.
What is wrong with me? She is so cool and that was not cool at all. I must look dumb as hell.
I make my way down to the geo-lab and open my laptop. I spend the next 45 minutes on the 15 minute task of cataloging samples thinking about Command- Christina. Mostly, I’m beating back the anxious replay of what had just happened. I am on this team. I am going on a scientific camping trip with the team, with her, in two months time. Oh my God.