Star Side

Chapter 4

Stellar date (Earth Time): 01-16-2914

Thankfully, I'd always been a homebody, so the emptiness of the space station didn't wear on me like I'd been warned it would.

Whenever I did crave company, I'd find Levi. Since the main computer kept tabs on our location and vitals at all times, finding him wasn't the problem, unless he was stuck in a wall somewhere doing maintenance.

On this particular day, I almost walked past him swallowed up in a hole of wires and tubes with only his naked feet sticking out. He had the worn, black figure of a devil tattooed onto his ankle and especially hairy toe knuckles.

"You look like that witch who got crushed under a house," I said in a way of greeting.

"Context," came back out of the tech mess.

"Uh, crap, um, it's a really old movie. Chick had ruby slippers, guy pretending to be a wizard in an emerald palace, something 'bout a yellow road, stupid dog."

"Ah, Wizard of Oz."

"That's it! Need to find you some red heels, my man, if nothing else so we can hide those nasty toes of yours."

Levi hated clipping his toe hair or toenails. He said his feet were too sensitive. After a while, he couldn't wear his boots, which was what I assumed had happened now. Eventually, his sister and brother-in-law would chase him down with some clippers and that would be the end of that. Really put a damper on his well-preserved, devil-may-care looks. Not that anyone here cared. That was probably the real problem here.

"No one said you had to look," said his disembodied voice. "Whaddya want?"

"Social stimulation. Mental health supplements."

"Hot damn." Even that he managed to say as though he couldn't be more bored. I never got tired of his flat-as-paper voice, as it always made his jokes come out sounding dead serious, and therefore funnier.

"What you doing?" I asked.

"Replacing some fuses because Naomi tried to fix the CT scanner on her own."

Naomi, like myself, was fiercely independent and thus had a hard time asking for help. She'd rather try to figure it out on her own and royally screw up than have to find someone who knew better.

"What was she trying to scan?"

"Josh's drone brought back a rock."

"...a rock? Can I have a little more detail?"

"Looks like a turd, smells like a turd, I'm pretty damn sure it's a turd, but the science has to say it is before it is, so out came the CT."

"Which has been broken since last week."

"Hey, I got a lot to do, I'm not as young as I use to be."

"Oh yeah, dying any day now. I can smell your old man grease from the observatory."

"That's some nose you have, kid."

His feet twitched a bit as he heaved on something with a grunt. Then, with much twisting and finagling, he managed to ease himself out through foot strength alone. 'Not as young as I use to be' my ass.

"What was that, toe gymnastics?"

He just looked at me from beneath bionic-oil-smeared brows before turning back to pull out his violent yellow toolbox.

"Anything new in your fish bowl?" It's what he often called the observatory atop the station.

"I think winter's just ended on planet Carrot-Puke."

"Huh. Mating season."

"Carrots have a mating season?"

"Spring's mating season, ain't it? Be cold and alone for too long even old people get horny."

"...I sense a hidden warning there."

He just patted me patronizingly on the head and pushed himself to his feet with another groan. His back popped several times. The little devil on his ankle flexed.

He tapped the communicator on his shirt collar. "Try it now."

The communicator, a simple globe like-pin, beeped to confirm the message had been transferred.

It beeped again before Joshua's gravelly voice said, "It's working, thanks. Wanna come see?"

Levi put his two fingers against the communicator to respond back, but simply sighed and left the message at that.

"Good choice," I said. "If you went there now they'd tried to clip your toenails."

He gave me the stink eye for that.

"I'll have you know," he said. "Back in my hay day on earth, I had the ladies all over me. Toes got nothing on this."

I put up my hands defensively and tried not to laugh. "Whoa, hey, I didn't say anything about ladies, and even if I had it's just us here. Who you trying to impress?"

"The companion bot. She keeps tabs on me."

"We have companion bots?!"

"No. Carry my tools for me. My joints are acting up."

I pouted at his back, knowing for a fact that he had no arthritis to speak of. In fact, besides me, he had the healthiest profile on the station.

Still, I'd been around long enough to know his command was his way of inviting me to hang out with him. It made me smile to think he enjoyed my company when he went out of his way to avoid his siblings.

I picked up his yellow toolbox and trotted after him.

"We gonna see the turd, then?"

"You see the turd, I ain't got time for that shit."

"Ha ha, turd. That shit. It's funny because they're the same thing. You're so witty. Ha ha, shit."

"You're shit."

"Yeah, but I'm your shit."

I jogged ahead of him just to annoy him because he had this weird alpha-male idea of always needing to lead the way.

I almost missed his tiny, crooked smile.