Just yesterday Zen thought he would die of boredom on this planet, how wrong he had been. First he took it upon himself to review and categorize every documented crime and anomaly of, probably the last twenty years. But now some very suspicious guys are flying around in space looting freighters who had a catastrophic failure, which they may or may not have caused in the first place.
Zen let out a sigh, he was sitting in the newly appointed records room surrounded by a circle of files and documents. 'Damn. Of Course something had to happen right as I found myself something to do. At least Effy volunteered to search the blackbox for valuable data, god knows I suck at computers.'
Zen indeed sucked at 'computers' of course he knew the basics, but compared to Effy whose job it partially revolved around he was but a monkey on a typewriter. 'Effy apparently loved doing detective work but Ard never let her help much in the past, she practically jumped in the air from joy when I asked her to help with the black box information.'
Zen looked at the paperwork surrounding him and hyped himself up by slapping his cheeks. 'Effy's doing her best on that, let's just focus on this! Don't want her to think I'm slacking off.' Zen dug into his paperwork like it owed him money, which if he gained a penny for every corrupt case he came across would be enough to buy a couple of drinks at least.
God knew what Robert and Amelia were doing, thirthy minutes before the end of shift and neither was in the office. Zen knew not to draw conclusions from only a day and a half worth of experiences but still. He found it really easy to imagine that the two already called it a day.
Zen shrugged. 'well, they both worked hard today. For once. I can't really say that yet, but it feels so right' Walking through the hallway towards the main offices, something gnawed at the back of Zen's mind. Did he forget something? Today was very busy thinking back they had to respond to the emergency call, he and Amelia went to the governor. And this morning Effy forced Robert to apologize.
'Crap! I promised Effy I would stop by the hanger somewhere today, shit! Is it too late? She won't be mad right? No, probably not. She knows how busy we've been today, Right?
I should probably stop by, no? I mean it couldn't hurt, so what's the harm!' Zen kept telling himself that he should 'probably' stop by but finds himself in quite the pickle.
He's nervous out of his mind. He's commanding his legs to move, but they're just remaining static. Securely rooted to the ground and connected to his torso, they refuse to move even a single centimeter. He remembers the sensation vividly: It's night out Zen himself was only seventeen, it was the night of his prom.
Zen was having a personal trip down memory lane, and had closed off the world around him temporarily. Wallowing in the embarrassment and nervousness of his hopefully never to be remembered again teenage years.
"Zen? Whatcha doing?" Zen was broken from his pity trip down memory lane as he turned around to find Effy standing behind him, she stared into him with her enchanting brown eyes.
"Gods, why does she have such beautiful eyes?" Zen's frozen body froze all over again.
'fuck did I say that aloud?' Zen wanted a lot of things from Effy but another round of teasing, sober no less. There was a limit to what his romantically starved mind could handle, Zen just hoped with all his might that he never had to find out what happened when he reached his limit. He felt it was a bridge that would crumble the minute you'd cross it, not advisable he thought.
Effy on the other hand looked a bit defeated, at least before Zen blurted out what he had blurted out. She suddenly shined with glee, and while still trying to keep it professional reduced herself to not tease Zen. For only this once then of course.
"Oh. Oh wow. Never knew you looked at me like that Zen, I'm flattered I must say." Of course she tried to keep it professional, it just failed. Spectacularly. She didn't leave any bullets in the magazine either as she fired tease after tease at the wonderfully poor defended Zen, who took it as well as one would expect.
Which of course was anything but good, Zen was basically going back to his factory settings. Drowning out his hearing sense and filtering its content so he only heard the words, but not who spoke them, or how. Still he was near his limit, he couldn't hold on for long. A wave of nausea hit him as his stomach churned with nerves.
'Think Zen, Think! You've known Effy for what? Two days? You can't be in love already! wait two days… I've been in cryo for seven and a half years and Effy is around my age, meaning. Omg Effy was just underage two days ago! (actually seven and a half years ago)' Zen's logic made no sense of course but it was enough for him to regain control of his bodily functions and all the perks that came with it.
Effy was still the same age as him, roughly at least Zen was only 25 excluding his cryo years. But of course those did show up on your grave stone once you're dead. Which is why the oldest living humans had been around for two hundred years while barely looking forty. But did that mean they could only date grannies? No, no it did not. Alas Zen was purposefully ignoring that fact in order to achieve what he wanted.
Zen looked Effy in the eyes once more and straightened his back, full focus on, well maintaining focus. Effy in the meanwhile had not stopped bombarding him with teases and flirtatious offers. Zen glanced at the clock, he had been inside the comfortable walls of his own mind for the last ten minutes.
Effy had not stopped teasing him for about ten minutes, Zen truly didn't know someone could keep that up for a sloid ten minutes. Effy conjured up one last tease for the road. "If you like me that much! you still owe me a couple of beers at the bar. Who knows maybe this time there's actually a couch for you to crash on, and if not well. We'll see."
"I- ummm," Zen had to make a comeback quickly! something to break him free from the teasing free for all that he was getting sucked in. Then he had it. An excuse so close to the truth that it offered a path to freedom. "I'll puke if I even see another beer for the next tw- Three days!" Zen of course, wasn't good with thinking his words over in his personal life. So this came across as well as one would expect.
Effy just stood frozen, still smiling.
'Crap did I say anything wrong? I mean yeah I did but that was the point! I didn't want to lie and I wanted this to stop, but not this! Why is she silent? Why is she still smiling!?'
Zen had made a lapse of judgment simply by implicating that he wanted to go get drinks today, which was basically giving Effy a fresh mag.
"You wanted to go out now? You know we don't have to get a beer, some food will do. You know Zen you really should learn how to deal with the ladies sometime soon, this isn't really even fair at this point." Effy sighed and looked up to meet Zen's eyes
"So you'll give me a break?" Zen asked hopefully, his voice barely above a whisper
"What do you think?" Effy replied, smiling even wider.
Effy continued picking on Zen for the remainder of company time, Effy truly got paid doing what she loved. The clock hit 5 PM and like an alarm only reverse Effy seized her bombardment, she looked at zen one more time, content with his rather excessive blushing she complemented herself on a job well done.
Zen swallowed all of his negative feelings, he wanted to complain but about what? This beautiful woman he worked close ties with was flirting with him for a solid thirthy minutes? That wasn't something to complain over, at least not in hindsight.
Zen regained a sliver of himself and asked Effy wondering. "Have you seen Robert or Amelia by any chance?" Effy was already walking to her desk to fetch her keys.
"They went to the range to practice in case this whole thing ends up violent. You know, he might not look it but Robert is the best shot on this planet probably."
Zen wasn't particularly taken aback, Robert kind of radiated disgruntled gunslinger. But still he would like to see the old man in action at least one time.
Effy made her goodbyes and left Zen in the office. It was connected to the barracks so he'd lock up on his side for tonight. Living in the barracks was lonely, because of the small team no one slept in the barracks except him.
But for Zen it gave him all the rest he needed. He needed a plan, a trap. For when, not if, the culprits of the derelict transport ship needed to be caught. And there were only so many fool proof plans he could think of, but they did require some faith in the skills of the rest of the team.
'Let's hope they live up to the hype.'