A Titan for Christmas

by Aria Kane

  "You're an engineer, then?" Grayson asked, stopping his work to look at her for a second.

  A little light of hope spread in her chest at his pause. She nodded.

  "Willy's leaving in a few days."

  The light distinguished, like a candle left on a drafty windowsill.

  "He won't make it to Earth until the day after Christmas," Jenna said.

  Grayson finished securing the last box with an expert twist of his fingers. He tugged on the knot to test it and nodded, satisfied. "That's better than nothing."

  "I can pay you."

  Grayson moved slowly around the cargo bay, testing all of the knots. Jenna's eyes flicked back and forth between the pallets, trying to avoid staring at his perfectly-shaped ass as he bent over some of the boxes.

  "I don't imagine you'd be asking if you couldn't," he said.

  Hope slid away from her like strands of silk being pulled through her fingers.

  "Is there anything I can say to make you change your mind?"

  "Nope."

  He walked up to the control panel and pressed a button. The ramp gently groaned in protest as it slowly made its transformation from ramp to cargo bay door.

  "But I promised!" Jenna yelled. Then, a little quieter. "I promised my little sisters I'd be there to open presents with them."

  The door stopped silent with just a meter left to go. Jenna's heart threatened to pound out of her chest. Did she say something that got to him? Or did the door break? With her luck lately, it would probably be the latter.

  Dark brown curls pop out of the opening, followed by that gorgeous face. "Your sisters?"

  Jenna thought carefully about her next words. They meant the difference between making it home by Christmas Day and … well, not.

  "Janice is seventeen; it's her last Christmas before she goes to college to study Literature or History, I'm not sure what it is this week. Jamie's fifteen. She wants to be a mining engineer, like me." Jenna laughed, remembering. "She follows my father in the garage all day, just like I used to."

  Grayson stared at her in a way that made Jenna doubt if he had even heard her.

  "The last time I got some com time with them, six months ago, I promised I'd be home to open presents with them Christmas morning." Jenna's voice broke with the force of the memory. "I pinkie-swore."

  The hint of a sad smile flitted across Grayson's face. "I know a thing or two about keeping promises to your little sister."

  He hit the button and the cargo bay door started a slow descent open. Jenna fought the urge to do a victory dance. He was going to take her! She would make it in time for Christmas. Her heart soared with the image of her sisters welcoming her home with hugs and jokes about her hair.

  "Two thousand credits."

  This squashed her urge to dance. "The private shuttle was seven hundred."

  "I know," Grayson said. "But they want passengers."

  Jenna hesitated. Should she try to talk him down? He didn't seem too confident in his decision to let her on board and she didn't want to give him a reason to change his mind. But two thousand credits was steep. Her salary coupled with the fact she didn't have to pay room or board on Titan meant she had more than enough money. But she didn't like knowing she was being taken advantage of.

  "Two minutes," Grayson said. "With or without you."

  So much for going home to grab her clothes and taking a shower. Screw it. Jenna scrambled on to Grayson's ship like it might jettison from the dock any second.

  Chapter 3

  A very quick tour of the ship followed. Jenna was instructed she was not to go into the cargo bay, which took up about sixty percent of the ship.

  Grayson then informed her his bed was the only on the ship, so they would sleep in shifts. Jenna didn't tell him she'd be sleeping on top of the covers. The small bedroom quarters included a surprisingly pristine toilet/sink/shower combo room, standard at one square meter for a craft this size.

  The engine room was her favorite part, but Grayson simply flashed the hatch open and closed it just as quickly, smirking as her eyes moved to catch the last glimpse before the latch snapped shut.

  Behind the cockpit, a simple galley was home to a bolted-down metal table with two matching chairs, a food reheater, a fridge, and clear plastic drawers stuffed to the brim with instant food packages. Not a single piece of decoration personalized the slate gray walls of the ship but at least it was clean.

  Home, sweet home.

  "How long is the trip?" Jenna asked.

  "Three days." He swung open the door to the cockpit and held it open for her to enter.

  "Three? Willy said it would take two."

  "It's not too late to go back and ride with him."

  Jenna was starting to think that might not be a terrible idea, but it would guarantee she'd arrive too late for Christmas. No, she'd stick with Grayson.

  "You'll need to strap in in the front with me until we break atmo. Once we're away from Saturn's pull, you should bunk up."

  "I should?"

  "Yeah, at least eight hours," Grayson said. "You look like you need it."

  As she buckled herself into the seat next to Grayson's, Jenna searched the cockpit until she found her distorted face reflected back at her in the glass of a navigational monitor. Aside from the smeared grease she had completely forgotten about, dark circles hung under her eyes. She didn't realize her shoulders were so slumped until she saw it in the glass.

  Now that she was sitting down, exhaustion washed over her, making her head spin a little. Henry and she had worked around the clock to fix that hydraulic line in the hopes it would be done in time for her to make her shuttle. Other than the four hour nap she had unwittingly taken while waiting for a toolset to arrive from another station, she couldn't remember the last time she had slept.

  Jenna laughed at her reflection. Grayson certainly didn't have a great first impression of her. No wonder he was so hesitant to take her on as a passenger; she probably looked like a lunatic running up to his ship like she had. And laughing at nothing now probably didn't help her cause. She snapped her mouth shut and focused on acting like a sane, normal person so he didn't make a last-minute reversal on his decision and leave her on the docks.

  **

  A gentle nudge roused Jenna from sleep that had come on like a sudden thunderstorm, nourishing and destructive in the same time and space. The lack of sleep must have made her drowsy because she awoke feeling... floaty. Her eyes labored open as she stretched her arms up and back.

  Grayson's face filled her vision – and what a vision it was. Now that he was closer and not moving so much, she could see the dusting of freckles on his nose and cheeks. The little dots served to soften the hard, angular lines of his cheekbones and jaw line. She used the cover of half-closed sleepy eyes to mentally trace that jawline to just below his ear, down the smooth lines of his neck, to the muscles flexing around his collar bone.

  He smirked, probably at her prolonged ogling.

  Slow to recover from the grogginess of being woken up too soon, her brain finally clicked all the gears into place and she realized something else about Grayson. He was floating, weightless in the cabin. And so was his long mess of curls.

  "What happened to your grav drive?"

  He shrugged. "It's been broken for a few weeks, not a top priority right now."

  Grayson motioned to the short hallway leading back to the galley. Jenna let her eyes linger on his extended bicep before looking at what he meant her to see. Get a grip, Jenna. He's hot, so what? He's also aloof and kind of a jerk.

  Evenly spaced along the interior metal walls of the ship, small handles she hadn't noticed on the quick walk-through tour were screwed into place.

  "You can make your way around with those."

  He pulled himself through the hallway to the galley and Jenna followed.

  Jenna yawned. Even in weightlessness, her body felt weary. "I think I'm going to grab some sleep, if it's OK with you."

  Grayson no
dded and went to one of the cabinets in the galley, pulling the magnetic clasp open with a tiny snapping sound.

  "My bunk has an attached sleeping bag. You'll have to zip it up so you don't bounce around the ship in your sleep."

  So much for sleeping on top of the covers.

  He pulled a small bundle of cloth out of the cabinet and stuffed it into the arm she wasn't holding on to the ship with. Jenna looked down at the bundle, curious. There was a towel, some kind of navy blue garment, a washcloth, and a packet of powdered soap.

  "I thought you might like to clean up. You can't take a shower with the grav drive broken, but if you press the washcloth up to the faucet, you can rub down."

  Jenna stared at him, speechless. That didn't happen to her too often. As a female engineer on a mining colony, she really needed to speak up to make sure her voice was heard. But the last thing she expected on this flight was unprompted hospitality.

  Grayson cleared his throat and broke the awkward, gawking eye contact. "The coveralls will be a little big on you, but they're clean."

  "Thank you." Jenna looked him straight in the eyes, making sure he knew how much she meant it. He floated a few feet above her and she looked up at him through her eyelashes, smiling.

  "Yeah, well." Grayson let go of the cabinet to reach up with both hands and pull his unruly curls into a short ponytail. He pulled an elastic band off his right wrist with his teeth and secured his hair. "Can't have you stinking up the ship for the next few days."

  Oh. Right. "Of course not." Jenna grabbed one of the handles and pulled hard, jettisoning off toward the bedroom quarters without another word.

  Chapter 4

  A washcloth, lukewarm water, and powdered soap wasn't exactly as luxurious or as relaxing as a hot shower, but it felt great to get the grime and grease off. Jenna scrubbed until every inch of her skin was light pink. Now that she was clean, she could smell a slight funk wafting from her work clothes so she took her best go at washing them in the small bathroom and clipped them to the towel rack with some old-fashioned wooden clothespins like her grandma used to use.

  Raising the coveralls reluctantly to her face, she sniffed and found them baby-powder fresh. She couldn't help but smile. It was like Grayson was trying to keep her on her toes.

  The guy was an enigma wrapped in an incredibly hot package, topped with adorable chestnut curls.

  An enigma who was totally not into her.

  Jenna shook her head as she pulled on the coveralls.

  Why did she let this guy get to her? So what if he did save her from missing out on Christmas with her family for the first time ever? He wasn't even nice. She told herself it was just because he was the first man she had seen in almost a year who wasn't totally off limits. After all, she knew better than to get involved with any TEP employee – more than one woman's career had been ruined that way – so that left her with exactly zero options while she was on Titan.

  But she wasn't on Titan anymore and he sure as hell wasn't a TEP employee.

  No. Stop being ridiculous.

  Jenna took a long look in the mirror. The short-sleeved coveralls hung loose on her body. The sponge bath had gotten rid of the grease, but the black circles still hung below her eyes. It was time to get some real sleep.

  Jenna slipped out into the bedroom and pressed a blue button she could only assume controlled the lights. When she unzipped the sleeping bag, she realized the light from the galley was on and the light escaping through the hatchway sliced across the pillow of the bed. That wouldn't work. Even as tired as she was, light shining directly into her eyes would keep her awake.

  Kicking off the bed, she glided across the room and into the galley. She found and hit the same blue button for this room. The light clicked off. Just before she floated back to bed, Grayson's muffled voice sounded from the cockpit. Jenna grabbed one of the handles and kept still, knowing eavesdropping was wrong even as she did it.

  "I'll see you on Christmas Day, honey. I promise. Nothing will keep me away after I deliver this shipment. Don't open presents without me. Don't even peek!" His voice was warm and full to the brim with love. He laughed softly. "I love you, Stacy."

  Well, that was that. The enigma had a girlfriend waiting for him back on Earth. Jenna didn't know why she was surprised; a man that good looking would always have someone waiting for him. Plus, it's not like she cared, right?

  Right.

  "End of message." His voice returned to the brisk tenor Jenna was much more familiar with. "Send as soon as communication range is reached."

  The answering beep of the communications computer jolted Jenna into action. She slipped carefully back into the bedroom quarters and zipped herself tightly into the bed, letting exhaustion wash over her and drown her in sleep.

  **

  One of Jenna's least favorite parts about living off-planet was how completely it messed up Circadian rhythms. Waking up in the dark, unfamiliar quarters with no clock and no way of knowing how long she had slept, Jenna's brain ramped up to fully functional in seconds.

  She freed her arms from the sleeping bag and stretched them up and around. They bumped into something clipped on to the outside of the bed frame – a magnetic tray with a vacuum sealed thermos and an aluminum packet labeled "Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal Bar."

  Had Grayson really made her breakfast in bed? Kind of.

  Grinning like a fool, she flipped the top on the thermos and the nutty, earthy smell of coffee greeted her. Drinking warm (not hot) coffee from a negative pressure straw was something you only got used to after many long nights off-planet.

  Jenna swore the first sip of the rich coffee transmitted the caffeine straight from her tongue to her brain. Synapses fired.

  The dry, crumbly oatmeal bar left crumbs floating in the air, but the fiber, sugar, and protein did wonders for her tired body. Jenna sat up in the bed, the sleeping bag keeping her strapped down at the waist.

  She watched the crumbs swirl in the air. They would eventually make their way to the air filter and be gathered for disposal, but maybe there was something more she could do.

  In the bathroom, she smoothed her hair into the best ponytail she could manage and ran a damp washcloth over her face. Time to get to work.

  Chapter 5

  Half of the disassembled grav drive clung to a metallic parts board Jenna had found in the back of the engine room and clamped to some piping when the door squeaked open. Grayson's head popped in through the opening, a knowing smile plastered on his face.

  Smiling transformed him. He was still every bit as handsome, but now he looked like someone who might not completely resent her presence.

  "I knew I'd find you in here."

  "Hey! Oh, hi! Oh!" Jenna looked at the parts scattered around her. "I'm sorry, I should have asked. I was just going to glance at it, but then I found some frayed fiber optics and replaced them, but it still wouldn't work so I wanted to check the secondary coupling because they tend to get mucked up in these older models so I -"

  Grayson held up a hand to stop her chatter, laughing. "I'm just a knuckle-dragger pilot, remember? I'm lucky I can fuel the thing."

  Jenna tossed her head back and laughed. "I'm sure you're just being modest. Here, look. I'll show you."

  She waved him over and he used the handles to float in next to her, the two of them hovering just above the floor, their heads close together to look deep into the grav drive's frame.

  She snaked her arm through the manifold and pointed. "See, this is where the cooling system was blocked, causing the system to overheat."

  "I'm with you so far."

  Jenna moved her arm to point at another spot and she bumped against the frame. Physics 101 flashback: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. The frame pushed back against her and she slid slowly into Grayson's side.

  "Whoa there." Grayson braced his left arm against the wall and wrapped his right arm around the back of her waist, keeping them both from sliding away from the grav drive.

/>   Jenna expected Grayson to remove his arm as soon as she stabilized, but it remained there, sending tingles up her spine. She turned her head to the side and his green eyes caught her gaze.

  "You've already managed to get more grease on you" Grayson reached his left hand to her face and rubbed his thumb gently across her cheek.

  How was it possible for such a small, simple touch to send thrills through her chest, through her stomach, and down even further? Gratitude for the broken grav drive filled Jenna as she realized she probably wouldn't be able to support her own weight at that moment. She had always thought weak knees was a romantic myth.

  The feel of his hip pressed against hers, coupled with the playful smirk on his face, made her forget everything she knew about ground faults and insulation-degrading temperatures.

  Heat rushed from where they touched to engulf her entire body.

  Grayson cleared his throat. "So, it got hot?"

  Jenna suddenly found it very hard to swallow. Or breathe. "Very."

  A chuckle vibrated through Grayson's chest, setting her body to humming. He released her gaze and loosened his grip around her back, turning his attention back to the grav drive. "What happened next?"

  Right. With the grav drive.

  Jenna wrapped her hand around the frame and squeezed, focusing on the feel of the sharp corners pressing into her skin. And not the feel of Grayson's body, gently bumping against hers in the zero-G.

  "The insulation here was the first to degrade, causing the current to jump through the secondary coupling and short out the whole electrical system."

  Grayson pursed his lips and nodded. Jenna knew that look; it was the same one she got from TEP management all the time.

  "You just want to know if I can fix it."

  "Yep," Grayson said, a grin lighting up his face.

  **

  "You sitting down?" Jenna called through the open door.