AZU-1: Lifehack (27 page)

Regan opened her eyes, surprised that
no tear escaped. Alisia was looking right into her eyes. My god,
those green eyes. Regan felt like trash in front of this
perfection, which looked at her like this, with
compassion.

Alisia clued in a bit. “Maybe this
wasn’t such a good idea.” she said, turning her eyes to shore.
“Maybe we should go back.”

“
I’m okay.” Regan sighed,
closing here eyes and floating back like Alisia had
before.

For some time, the two enjoyed the sea,
floating peacefully, but keeping a distance from each other. Alisia
worried while Regan cried salty tears into the salty
water.

Some hours later, Regan realized that
the sky she’d been staring up at was turning dark. She righted
herself and looked around. She had floated farther from the shore
than she thought. She looked around for Alisia, finally spotting
her up on the beach, sitting back on the blankets. She swam back to
the beach, but when she got closer to Alisia, Regan found she was
already asleep. Regan thought about setting up the tent, but with
the weather as it was, it seemed like the tent would not be needed
on this trip. She made herself a ‘nest’ out of blankets near Alisia
and watched TV on the terminal for a little bit. It was still a bit
early.

She turned her attention to Alisia,
sleeping peacefully and oblivious. She was on her back, leaning up
a bit on a couple of blankets under her head and torso, just lazily
spread out. It was far better a thing to watch than the terminal,
so Regan turned it off. Alisia had a surprising number of empty
cooler bottles near by. Three was a lot for Alisia. Maybe it was a
sign that Alisia was relaxing a bit, finally. Was it because Regan
wasn’t around at the time?

It was all so awkward. Regan curled up
close, but not too close, moving a couple bottles out of the way.
She watched Alisia breathing. Her chest rose and fell, and Regan
found her own breathing becoming faster. She reached out for
Alisia’s nearby hand but decided not to touch.

It felt like forever, but even with her
greatest temptation laying nearly naked just an arm’s reach away,
Regan finally found sleep.

The next day found Alisia awake first.
Although Regan had packed mostly junk-food and pre-fab meals,
Alisia did her best to arrange what she felt was a presentable
breakfast, which she laid in front of Regan for when she
awoke.

When they were both ready for the day
they made some use of the inflatable raft, and later explored the
jungle a bit. There were no awkward moments, Regan put extra effort
into not causing them, but it was very difficult.

When the evening came, they settled
into their nests and watched some TV on the terminal over a
snack-ish supper, and more drinks than Regan had ever seen Alisia
pack away. The movie broke to commercial, and Regan turned down the
volume.

“
Leesha?” She asked in a shy
voice, “Have I been good today?”

Alisia was a bit surprised. “Good? Oh.
You mean... well... yes, you’ve been really good, actually... When
you brought this whole thing up, I was expecting some tourist trap
resort. To be honest, I had all these plans to.. well.. not avoid
you.. but escape the kinds of situations where..
well...”

“
Where I would hit on
you...” Regan said shamefully.

“
Well, yeah. But here, I
can’t rely on any of the distractions I was counting on. I wanted
separate rooms, but that didn’t work out because there are no
rooms!”

Regan giggled under her breath. “I
could have used this time to be really bad.”

“
Yeah,” Alisia said, getting
a bit nervous, “I... heh. Have no where to run.”

“
Since I’ve been so good,
can I.. do something?”

Alisia’s eyes widened with fear. She
didn’t speak, not knowing how to say “Oh god, please no, just leave
me alone!” without sounding hurtful. Regan got closer and put an
arm across Alisia’s middle, snuggling up close.

Alisia’s body was rigid with tension.
Was that it? Could be worse. Regan felt the tension and was already
ashamed. No, not ashamed. It was just painful to think that her
touch would bring such displeasure.

The movie came back on and Regan turned
the volume back to normal. She felt the humidity between her arm
and Alisia’s abdomen. The movie was not important in the
slightest.

Alisia tried to ignore this woman,
latched on to her side. If it was just a friend, it would be
awkward, but this woman loved her. Stupid lesbian. She tried to
relax. Better to watch the movie than give herself an ulcer over
this. Just imagine it was a big teddy bear. In a bikini, who’s
smelling your hair. “Oh my god,” Alisia thought, “She’s smelling my
hair.”

Regan was in heaven. Holding Alisia
wasn’t quite as nice as she’d hoped, since she was so tense, but
Regan was thrilled with having her face buried in Alisia’s fiery
mane. The gentle scent seemed to fill her heart, when suddenly,
magic happened.

Alisia relaxed.

Suddenly, this tense bundle Regan was
holding just melted. Regan felt them fit just a little bit better
together. A tiny bit more body contact. It was incredible. Regan
felt her heart speed up again. Her body filled with adrenaline. The
relaxing moment was over for Regan, just as Alisia had found it.
Regan began to tense up, fighting her passion. She closed her eyes
but found only irrepressible, erotic urges. Alisia was right in her
arms! Regan imagined all the things she might be able to do before
Alisia could squirm away. No, no. That wouldn’t do. That would ruin
everything. But she had to do something.

“
Alisia,” Regan whispered
nearly in a rasp. Alisia’s body tensed again, but this time it only
served to fuel Regan’s lust. “I want my birthday present now.” She
almost sounded as if she were in pain, and in a way, she
was.

Alisia backed her head up so she could
look at Regan. “Uh... I told you, I didn’t get a chance.” She knew
that’s not what Regan meant, but she could hope. Regan tightened
her grip on Alisia. “I... may I kiss you?”

Alisia tossed back her head. “I came
with you to your little trap, you’ve been cuddled up to me for half
an hour, isn’t that-“

Alisia felt a kiss on her neck,
followed by hot, heavy breath, and another kiss closer to the chin.
Alisia was shocked. The next kiss was bound to be aimed at her
mouth. She felt Regan’s breath draw near, her hair, everywhere, her
near-closed eyes looking up at her own. She was almost on top of
her.

“
No” Alisia whispered,
pushing Regan away gently. “That’s more than enough.” Despite her
objections there was pleasure in the kisses on her neck. The tingle
of them still remained, and she was terrified of it. She faced
Regan who was sitting with her eyes closed, and breathing heavily,
still awash in the moment past.

“
Alisia... “ Regan swept her
hair out of her face and looked at her. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t
mean to. Not like that.”

Alisia curled up with a nearby blanket.
She’d never been so close to Regan’s .... Regan’s heat. They looked
at each other silently for a while, hoping the other would say
something.

Eventually, Alisia lay back down,
covered by the blanket. She looked back at Regan and held out an
arm. “Come back here, friend.” She was inviting Regan to cuddle up
again through the protection of the blanket.

Regan was speechless. Slowly, as if
afraid of a trap, she returned to the original position, and they
continued watching the movie. Alisia felt the need to break some
tension. “Now see, silly? You made us miss part of it.”

Regan giggled, tightening her hold,
happy to again have a face full of red hair. Her giggle silenced
and slowly turned into a meek little cry.

“
Shh.” Alisia soothed. This
only made Regan cry harder. Regan didn’t know if she was crying
because she couldn’t have Alisia, or because Alisia called her
‘friend’ with such a compassionate tone, or that she allowed her to
cuddle back up. Whatever it was, it hurt somehow. The more she
tried not to think of it, the harder it was, and she was soon
sobbing uncontrolled. Alisia clutched Regan hard.

“
Hush, Regan. Nothing’s
wrong. I’m doing my best not to hurt you, but this is only going to
get harder.”

Regan struggled to get words out, “I
know!”

Alisia turned off the terminal and held
her sobbing friend tight, with all the love she could dare to give.
Regan’s crying and the soothing sea were all there was to be heard,
until mercifully, sleep came to take away their problems until the
next day.

~~~~~

Chapter 38: Bitter Reunion

~~~~~

Parker stood silently at the entrance
of the dark operations cockpit, leaning against the bulkhead. He’d
been there for some time. Kris sat facing away, watching various
displays, none of which were important. She could feel Parker’s
eyes drilling into the back of her chair. She couldn’t stand it
anymore.

She removed all emotion from her face,
and turned around. “What do you want?” Her voice was calm, but
accusing.

Parker scuffed his boot onto the floor
and looked down grimly.

“
Sex?” Kris asked, “If
that’s it, go away. I’m not in the mood.”

Parker stood silent for a moment more,
then replied. “No.” Then a long silent pause before he elaborated.
“I’m not sure what I want.”

“
Then bugger off.” Kris
turned around, back to her meaningless displays.

Parker stayed. He struggled to find the
right thing to say. “I’m sorry.” It always seemed like a safe thing
to say.

“
What? What the hell
for?”

“
Accusing you of using me to
hurt Regan.”

Kris turned back around, looked at him,
and hunkered down on her elbows. “Why?” she shrugged carelessly. “I
did.”

Parker had hoped he was wrong. “So...
that’s it?”

Kris’s expression turned bitter. “What
the hell do you want? You want me to run into your arms and profess
my undying love or some shit?”

Parker was silent. No, he didn’t expect
that, but he was hoping she’d say that there was something between
them. Parker stood straight. “I’m sorry to have inconvenienced you,
Sir.” He turned and left for his quarters.

Kris stared spitefully in his direction
for what felt like a long time. She’d show him. A small sound came
from her terminal. They were approaching the island.

Regan and Alisia spotted the airlimb
and were ready for pickup. They didn’t talk much that morning, but
the usual tension was sprinkled with a small, temporary confection
of peace. Regan walked over to Alisia, who was leaning on the big
luggage heap.

“
Hey, ‘leesh, wanna mess
with their heads a bit?”

Alisia raised an eyebrow with a small
smile.

“
Hehe, good. Then just play
along a bit when we see them. Let me handle it. Subtlety is the
key.” Regan lowered her own shoulder strap and let it fall into a
lazy position. The airlimb was soon parked on the beach. The bay
door opened, revealing Parker.

“
Hey ladies, how was your
weekend?” Alisia noted that he seemed to lack a bit of his usual
enthusiasm.

Regan gave her most seductive smile and
glanced her hand across the small of Alisia’s back as she walked
past her. “Mmm, no complaints.” She then ‘noticed’ that her strap
was down, and pulled it back up with an exaggerated motion which
caused her assets to bounce a bit. If Parker took the hint, he
wasn’t showing it. He stepped forward to help with the cargo.
“Good, good.”

Regan’s tease did hit one target
though. Unnoticed in the relative dark in the far end of the main
bay, Kris walked off, back towards the ops cockpit. “Great,” she
thought. “Look at the happy couple.” She considered flying the
airlimb into the nearest rock. Of course, between the limb’s safety
systems and remote HQ piloting assistance, that would be
impossible... but it was still an attractive thought.

~~~~~

Chapter 39: Poor Parker 2

~~~~~

Officially, AZU-1’s leave was over, but
there was still nothing new to do. Zombies had kept quiet, and Doc
Brock’s crew were still fussing over the samples taken.

Alisia noticed that Kris and Parker
were both acting odd. She wasn’t too concerned with Kris, but she
was worried about Parker. Alisia kept an eye out for an opportunity
to corner him, and finally she noticed him going into his room. She
followed a little after, and knocked.

“
What?” His voice came a bit
sharply.

“
Parker? Can I come
in?”

Through the door, she heard him jump up
and approach. The door opened, to reveal Parker’s surprised face.
“Major! Sorry, ah, what can I do for you?”

“
You OK? You seem ...
off.”

“
Oh, no Major. Nothing to be
concerned about. I’m perfectly fit for duty.”

“
That’s not what I
asked.”

“
Major?”

“
Look, Parker. I’ve worked
with you a long time, right? I requested you for this post and
you’re just kinda...my responsibility.” As she said that, it
reminded her of parts of her feelings for Regan.