The remaining forty-eight hours fly by. There's a few brawls, a few near hospitalizations, but nothing that ends up requiring Finley, so they stuff themselves with all the great food they're going to miss for the next five years and plenty of beer, which they won't miss completely but which will be much more regulated, before Finley drags everyone not in a food coma to the spa and they spend the rest of the day dozing on and off amid massages and scrubs and steam baths before finally giving up for the night.
Finley took Callahan back with her, because he was looking for fun and nothing else, and ignored Brandi and Russo doing what they both swore they weren't going to do again and disappearing together.
The next morning, Evan somehow managed to run into the medic he had a crush on and dragged him along to ice skate on the rings.
They all rented oxygen suits and skates and took a shuttle to one of the farther glaciers. Even Littlefoot got her own suit and skates, although she wasn't happy about it, and eventually Finley picked her up and put her over her shoulders as they skated in less and less coordinated circles.
Even, who could be graceful as fuck in a fight, but somehow tripped over his own feet when he was excited, barely managed to stay upright, but he didn't look too upset about it. His medic 'friend, he'd stressed that when he introduced Eddie, kept hovering around him, catching Evan whenever he started to fall, and Evan kept blushing and looking at him whenever he thought Eddie wasn't looking.
Eddie was doing a decently convincing job of ignoring it as Callahan zoomed by, annoyingly comfortable on blades, and gave them increasingly significant looks they both ignored.
After a few hours, Finley slid to a stop at the edge of the glacier, nothing between her and the rest of the universe except a waist-high metal bar barely as thick as her wrist.
Some of the more remote parts of the rings had nets to catch anyone who skated off the edge. There were rescue teams on call at all times, but more remote parts of the rings still took an hour to reach.
The oxygen suits contained locator beacons and could generate oxygen for a week, so the biggest threat after falling off the edge was exposure or starvation, depending on how fast you were going when you went over.
The most terrifying moment in Finley's life had been when she'd had to jump from a damaged ship and had floated through space for two days before Evan had found her. It hadn't even been the enemy ships hunting her that had been the scary part; it had been the two days of absolute silence, akin to being locked in a deprivation chamber, capable of driving a human mad in minutes if they weren't accustomed to it.
Finley had only made it because she happened to love the quiet, but even she'd been shaken by the end of it and spent several days glued to Evan's side before she'd been able to stand an hour alone.
The unending expanse of space was heavy, suffocating when you were faced with its vastness. With the realization of just how big and just how small things truly were. Had anyone in the 21st Century ever thought that one day they'd be ice skating on the rings of Saturn? Science fiction novels written before humankind moved to space had run the gamut from empires to telepathic cats and all manner of incredible things, but very few talked about the simple day-to-day life people would have in the solar system.
Evan skidded to a stop next to her, flailing until his medic caught him under the arms. Evan groaned. "Just let me lie here in my shame."
Eddie sighed, clearly exasperated. "You'll get sick."
"Won't," Evan muttered, mulish and clearly in a mood because he was embarrassed.
Eddie rolled his eyes and pointedly didn't let him drop the rest of the way.
Littlefoot gave an encouraging bark.
Finley watched Eddie out of the corner of her eye. He was attractive, she could understand Evan's interest in that regard, but there was something…off.
He couldn't look Finley in the eye. Hadn't when Evan had introduced him, or anytime they'd passed by one another while they were skating.
It was one of the more obvious signs of guilt, but Finley hadn't recognized him from any of Russo's possible assassination files, so he hadn't tried anything they'd caught. He was a medic, so it was possible it just hadn't gone off yet, or he was waiting to carry it out.
Or he'd had a change of heart. Medics in the military forces occupied a complicated space, expected to do harm when they took oaths to heal, not hurt. They spent their days caring for children who put on uniforms and pretended to be adults, who injured themselves acting their age more than they did harm to anyone else and then turned around and were told to hurt people in slightly different uniforms.
It wasn't too unbelievable that he'd been approached, agreed, and then not been able to go through with it, and now he felt bad whenever he had to look at her.
His growing whatever with Evan probably made it worse.
"It's a nice view." She offered, just to see what he did. The glittering veil of the universe was laid out in front of them, with no atmosphere or buildings to get in the way.
Eddie glanced at her and quickly looked away. "It's beautiful."
Evan managed to claw his way back to standing, clinging to Eddie's arm. "This view never gets old."
"Probably why it costs so much." Finley snorted.
"Worth it." Evan insisted. They all had their little luxuries they splurged on. Finley had her spas and her books, Russo had a weapons collection that was illegal in most of the universe, and Evan ran after every experience he could find.
~ tbc