The Final Expedition

Day Fifty-Two

“Good Morning.” I said, entering the Zvezda module. Morrison was at the far end of the compartment, running on a treadmill, held in place by a couple of bungee cords fixed to a belt around his waist.

“Morning Carter.” Morrison replied. “Looking for Dr Varennikova?” I studied his face for a moment, wondering if it was a loaded question. A knowing smile played across the American’s lips and he gestured towards the hatch in the floor just behind me. “She’s in the Nauka lab.” I looked down through the open hatchway, seeing her busily working on a laptop fixed next to one of the experiment racks.

“Thanks.” I nodded before pulling myself through the hatch and into the Russian laboratory docked beneath the service module.

“Good morning.” I smiled. Natalya, looked up from her laptop, meeting my gaze for the briefest of moments before her eyes darted back to her laptop.

“Good morning.” She echoed solemnly, continuing to study the screen in front of her. Taken aback by her frostiness, I decided to press on nonetheless.

“Look Natalya, about last night…” She cringed.

“I shouldn’t have done that.” She blurted out. “That’s not like me at all. I was just feeling…”

“Hey, it’s okay!” I reached for her, my hand closing over hers. “Look, I hope you don’t really regret what happened last night. I’ve felt really close to you over the last few weeks and I think I…” I winced, feeling my face flush. “If you want to dial things back and just be friends…” I added, stuttering a little. Natalya finally met my gaze, her eyes dewy. She smiled and I realised that for once they were tears of happiness rather than despair.

“You mean a lot to me too.” She admitted, holding my gaze. “I don’t know how I would have coped without you these past few weeks. I’m sorry about a moment ago. I woke up this morning and just felt so embarrassed.” I gently tugged on her hand. Natalya smiled and allowed herself to be pulled towards me. With a quick glance up at the open hatch into Zvezda to ensure they were alone, I placed my hand on the small of her back, gently pulling her body to mine. Her arms wrapped around me as my other hand slid up to the nape of her neck. Natalya’s hand slid up to the back of my head, her fingers running through my hair and with the most delicate of movements, gently pulled my face towards hers. We gazed deeply into each other’s eyes as we leaned into each other, our lips meeting, kissing tentatively at first but with increasing urgency. I could feel my heart racing as we floated there together, somehow feeling even more elated than during our illicit rendezvous the previous night. When Natalya finally pulled away, she smiled up at me, her eyes sparkling.

“I had better get back to my experiment.” She told me as she reluctantly broke our embrace. “But I’ll see you later?”

“You know where to find me.” I smiled, before kicking up off the floor, propelling myself back towards the hatch in the ceiling.