Goin' Camping
Goin' Camping by Kathmandu. Short little story about a boy and his love.
"I wanna go camping," Angel said, sounding like an ADD cheerleader on a sugar high and no Ritalin in sight.
I lowered my datapad and looked out of the hatchway of the derelict spaceship we called home. I could see her as she stood outside the ship, "You want to what?" I said. We were using my implanted coms to talk so it's not like I couldn't hear her, just what she said made no sense.
"I want to go camping. You know, build a fire, sleep under the stars, toast marshmallows, sing songs. You know, go camping."
"But... you sleep under the stars all the time and you don't even want to hear me sing. Trust me on that"
"Doesn't matter, I still wanna go camping. You can do those things and you need to get out more. Besides, I love camping. Come on sweetie, have the 'cycler make some marshmallows and let's go. It'll be fun!"
"Angel, we are 40 lightyears from the nearest tree and I am trying to keep the power running in this wreck so I can stay alive." I put the data pad down and hit the cryro valve with a hammer to keep if from siezing up and cutting off the power plant on the ship.
"It can wait a day or two and besides we are lovers and as such we tend to be impulsive and going camping would be so romantic. We need to live life to it's fullest and that sometimes means dropping everything to go camping."
She had a point. Me sitting here and hitting this valve every 20 minutes just to keep the lights on wasn't all that important, I could just turn it back on when we got back. Besides, when Angel got an idea stuck in her head, he had found it was easier to acquiesce to her impulses than to refuse. I got up and grabbed a few plastic bags from the storage locker, one for the marshmallows and a couple others to store my, ah, waste in to return to the 'cycler. If it weren't for it, I'd have starved to death a long time ago since there is nothing on this mudball I can eat. It's also the reason I need to live life to the fullest because my supply of organic material to put into the 'cycler is dwindling ever so slowly due to the recycling process itself plus incidental losses due to sweat and natural skin shedding. I figure I have a month or two before the cycler goes into emergency slurry mode and I get to sip nutrient shakes until it turns to nothing but water and I start starving to death.
I could afford to indulge myself with a few toasted marshmallows for now. I put them in the bag after the 'cycler popped them out and walked out of the hatch. Angel waited for me to arrive before she opened the access hatch. I stepped in and sat on one of the benches built into the bulkhead. "All set sweetheart, whenever you're ready."
"I'm so excited, I know it will be fun!" She started the engine and off we went. "I know the perfect place we can go. Ridge 459 would be a lovely spot I think, it overlooks the sea."
"Sounds great." I said. I meant it too, these little activities were fun and it helped keep my mind off the future. Angel did what she could and I did love her for it. Soon we arrived at Ridge 459 and it was rather nice. The view was great as she had said it would be.
Since there was nothing on the planet that could actually burn, I used my sidearm beamer to heat up a rock to nearly cherry red and used it as a substitute. I sat down and enjoyed the radiant heat it gave off. Angel maneuvered herself near the fire and we sat there in comfortable silence for a while watching the occasional flame lick across the glowing rock as some mineral oxidized on its surface. The stars were bright as they usually were once the 'sun' went down. Most of them were pieces of my battle fleet though and even after a couple of years the display of falling stars was spectacular. I leaned up against her as we enjoyed the view and each other's company.
"How about some of those toasted marshmallows?" Angel said after a while.
"Great idea." I opened the bag and looked at them a moment. "Damn, I forgot to grab a wire to toast them on."
"No problem, just use the omni-gain antenna. It's long enough and we don't need it anymore."
"Ah, good idea." I got up and unscrewed it from its mount then skewered one of the marshmallows with the tip and sat back down next to Angel. I extended the antenna and marshmallow near the rock and let the heat lightly toast the outside. I had to be careful not to burn it, otherwise the 'cycler couldn't use it. Angel giggled as I burned my fingers removing the hot, gooey marshmallow from the tip. I blew on it a few times until I was reasonably certain it wouldn't burn my mouth then popped it in my mouth. The flavor was incredible, all warm and sweet. I leaned against Angel again and put my head against her and sighed, "This was perfect, I love this idea. We need to do this more often."
"I knew you'd like it and I would love to do this more often." Her voice was a little deeper now, not quite the perky cheerleader it usually was. "We need to live life to it's fullest hon, no matter the cards we are dealt."
"Right as always," I said as I readied another marshmallow. "Besides, who am I to disagree with a 40 ton, fully armed main battle tank. If she wants to go camping, I ignore her at my own peril." I took the antenna with the marshmallow and bent it so it wouldn't fall out and placed it in the barrel of her main plasma gun. "Here, you give it a try." She traversed the gun over and down placing the marshmallow near the glowing rock letting it toast nicely. I couldn't help but smile.
The End