LIGHTNOVELWORLD Chapter 25: Evening talks
29th April 2156, 21:56 PM Second Dawn Bunker
It was late in the evening, and Raven was still sitting in her comfortable chair in the master's office, looking tensely at a pile of technical drawings and diagrams. She and the others had spent most of the day performing and supervising more repairs and fixes to the bunker's worn infrastructure. And even though their intense efforts had already reduced the repair list considerably, her worries persisted. Something was still missing. A detail that might be important. Too important to be overlooked. Even though Becca's remnants were long gone from her mind, it felt again like she was trying to steer and navigate through this problem she just couldn't find, but knew was there.
Across from her sat Murphy, his feet carefully resting on the other half of the table and himself leaning back in the other comfortable chair. Occasionally, she could hear the loud crunching coming from him as he watched her eyes dart from one document to the next.
"What?" Raven blurted out when she couldn't stand it any longer, having noticed that he had been watching her for the last few minutes.
"Nothing. I'm just eating my nuts..." He assured her, trying his best to sound as innocent as possible.
Raven let out an annoyed sigh while twisting her eyes, before lowering her head back to her paperwork. It was the same sight as the day before: Raven working overtime, trying to find problems that were simply not there. And even that wasn't a new sight, as she'd been doing the same thing for the past six years, trying to find a way back to Earth with their limited fuel resources.
"Heavy lies the crown..." He muttered from the other side of the table after continuing to watch her study her documents. At the same time, his hands reached for the bowl of nuts next to the table lamp that cast a warm light on the room.
"What?" she barked at him tense.
"Nothing," he pretended to be innocent again while crunching another handful of nuts in his mouth, "it's just that you look like Clarke when she's trying to make a plan..."
"Not helpful..." She growled at him, "What is your problem?"
"I'm just saying. We probably have two days before our new life starts... Two days to relax and take it easy. I know you have been working hard here as well, and there is still a lot to do, but..." Her eyes stared at him tense. Tense enough to make him stop and take another approach.
"Then tell me: What is wrong?" He then asked her directly, urging her to finally speak up.
"I still don't know..." She confessed after a short pause, lowering her head in defeat, "I can't find it..."
"You don't know? Then everything seems all right to me. Don't you think you're exaggerating a bit? I mean, Monty and Emori aren't acting like..."
"I'm not crazy..." Raven burst out loudly, immediately silencing him.
"Sure..." Murphy said with raised hands, "I just wanted to say that you're a little overworked. You've been on your feet since... When exactly? You don't look like you've been getting much sleep lately?" He added as he carefully lowered his legs from the desk before getting up from the chair. Then he walked slowly to the cupboard that was on the other side of the room. Knowing what he wanted, he did not need to search. His hand quickly reached for an old bottle of rum that he had noticed earlier that day when they had their first meeting in the Master's office.
"What did I miss? Since when do you care so much about me?" She asked him curiously, leaning back and watching him work on the cabinet.
"Oh come on Raven..." Murphy replied, sounding almost indignant, "I care about you. Even Clarke. She saved us after all... We all screwed up. But we all managed to still be here... And you take care of everything around here, so why can't I return the favor?"
"Oh... our ancestors. Looks like Octavia wasn't much of a drinker. A shame, but good for us..." He added after closing the cabinet and carrying the bottle carefully to the table.
"You're really serious?" Raven incredulously asked him when she saw the bottle and began to understand his intention.
"How old is this?"
"Old enough, I guess..." He replied as he turned the bottle in his hands before placing it in the middle of the table. Then he made a quick trip to the side table and picked up two medium sized whiskey glasses that were stored upside down on a silver plate.
"Well, I intend to finish this bottle one way or another. But I'm being generous and have decided to share a glass with you... or two..." He explained as he began to pour each of them a good sip. "One of the other bottles, however, is reserved for Emori and me..."
"You sound like you have something to celebrate..." Raven commented with a raised eyebrow, still carefully watching him.
"For the last three days, no one has tried to kill us. That's a record, if you don't count the time on the ring. We made it, everyone we love and care about is alive, so yeah, I guess we can celebrate that for sure..."
"Shut up Murphy…"
"Just like Clarke..." He countered as he pushed the glass to her side and put his feet back on the table.
"I'm not like Clarke..." She hissed at him.
"Yes you are..." He said as he grabbed his glass and raised it, "Cheers."
Although she focused on him for another moment, she finally decided to accept his generous and sincere invitation. "Cheers," she leaned across the table and the two glasses clinked as they toasted each other before taking a big swig. The first taste of real alcohol after such a long time felt like a fast-acting medicine, washing away her troubles with the first sip. It wasn't the alcohol itself, though, but the strong and distinct burning sensation it caused in Raven's mouth. The liquid was strong, and the last 103 years of keeping it in its bottle obviously helped in some way.
"Uhh... that's strong," she remarked, doing her best not to cough.
"Feeling better?"
"I'm surely feeling something now…" Raven replied as her head began to spin for a short moment.
"Then it works. Take another sip before it gets better," he advised her, setting a good example as he put the glass back to his mouth.
"So... why don't you let Monty take a look at your paperwork. Maybe he'll find the missing piece..."
Seeing Raven's eyes widen, he quickly added, "Not that you couldn't find it on your own, but you know... Why not let others do the work sometimes..."
Raven let out a loud sigh.
"But it would be better to wait until tomorrow. On the way here I heard the two..."
"No..." Raven cut him off, not wanting to go into any more detail here as her mental eye was already starting to draw a very vivid picture of said scene, "Fine, I'll let him have a look at it before he and Harper start another round of... something."
"I'm talking to him right after our morning briefing tomorrow..." She added, receiving a silent but affirmative nod from him as he began to refill their glasses for a second round. This time, Raven didn't wait for his invitation for another toast as she confidently emptied her glass in one sip.
"You know... I really hope that I'm only starting to go crazy and that it's nothing serious..." She said after her throat cleared and the burning sensation subsided.
"Raven... you'll see there's nothing to worry about. We don't need the bunker if the valley really is the promised land everyone was willing to die for..."
"Winter, Murphy," she reminded him, playing with the half-empty glass in her hands.
"That's something I haven't even thought about yet..." She confessed, "Look. We have hundreds of mouths to feed. Not just for one winter. Even if we survive this winter... and the next... what if it's the third? Spare parts, resources... We have to find fuel for the dropship, gather food and supplies and..."
"Stop it, Raven. Stop it for once," Murphy almost shouted at her with a raised voice, "In case you haven't noticed, you're not the only one who's supposed to be dealing with this. Why don't you wait for Clarke and Bellamy to come back. I'm sure they'll talk about these things too. And maybe they, or someone else, will come up with an idea. Why does it always have to be us who have to save the world and everyone..."
Strangely enough, his words sounded both right and awfully wrong to her. It sounded like giving up.
"Aren't you concerned?"
"I am... But I could do nothing when the fire was about to destroy the world. I was just looking for Emori. All the time... While others saved the world. What could I have done?"
"That's not true Murphy..." Raven appealed to him, "You're more helpful than you think..."
"Yeah, sure..." Murphy replied with a flat, fake smile while mocking her words with his voice.
"I mean it," Raven said, more seriously and firmly this time. But before she could say anything more, a sudden knock at the office door immediately caught their attention.
"Great," Raven muttered between her teeth before yelling "come in" at the door, loud enough for the late visitor to hear from outside. Without hesitation, the door opened and to their surprise, it was Indra who walked in.
"Something wrong?" Murphy asked, alarmed just by her presence. Whenever Indra was around, it meant that something serious was about to happen or was already happening. His eyes shifted to Raven, who caught his gaze after glancing at the radio that lay at the far end of the table. Her eyes assured him, much to his relief, that if anything was wrong, they would have been notified via radio by now.
"No, everything is calm," Indra immediately gave them the all-clear.
"Good..." Murphy replied, "I'm sorry, but whenever I see you, I think things are getting tense...:"
Indra gave him a tense look before focusing solely on Raven and going straight to her point, "Do you still have radio contact with the ship?"
"Yeah, but I don't think anyone's answering," Raven answered her question, trying her best not to sound confused. "They logged off about half an hour ago... Why?" She added, deciding to let her curiosity about what was on Indra's mind win out.
"I just want to speak with Gaia. It won't take long. Tell her..." Indra kept her request as short as possible.
"Yeah... sure..." Raven promised her, "I'll tell them as soon as I can." A quick nod and Indra turned to leave, before coming to a sudden stop. But she only stopped for a split second before leaving the room with quick steps.
"That was strange…"
"She's worried about Gaia...obviously..." Murphy realized, "Even Indra seems to have shifted her focus. And you also need to learn how to relax... Here... I leave this bottle here with you..."
"Wait, we weren't finished," Raven said indignantly as Murphy lowered his legs from the table and slowly rose from his chair.
"Don't think too much about these things. You couldn't solve our fuel problem in space either... No offense... But some things even you can't decide or change... And you're not a fortune teller. Don't try to see problems where there aren't any. It's okay to plan for contingencies, but sometimes you have to take things as they come. That way you can be prepared for them..."
"Wait, is that it? What kind of lecture was that?" She called after him, but Murphy decided to leave her as she was while he grabbed another bottle of rum from the cabinet and left the room.
"Wanker…"