She crawled into bed, turned off her light, and stared at the ceiling, but sleep wouldn’t come, random images chasing each other through her mind. Malik and Lev pinning down a furious Lance. The reflection of Thor sliding in and out of her. Vasily holding the switchblade. Patty’s body lying on the bed in the infirmary.
Oh, Patty.
Samantha threw back her covers and got out of bed. “To hell with this.”
She put her bathrobe over her pajamas, stepped into her slippers, and left her room, remembering the radio this time. The hallway was empty and silent as she walked to the self-service kitchen next to the galley. There, she heated water in the electric kettle for a cup of chamomile tea.
Steve walked in, carrying an empty coffee cup. There were dark circles beneath his eyes, lines of fatigue on his face. “Can’t sleep?”
“I’m just … tense, I guess. How about you? You look exhausted.”
“All this shit is happening, and I still have a station to run.” Steve set his cup on the counter and drew her into a hug. “I’m so sorry, kiddo. This has been tougher on you than anyone. Is there anything I can do?”
“Bring Patty back?”
He released her and stepped back, sympathy in his eyes. “I can do a lot of things, but not that. I miss her, too.”
The kettle whistled.
Samantha found the chamomile tea and dropped a teabag into a clean mug. Then she filled the cup with steaming hot water and stirred in some honey.
“Milk?” Steve opened the fridge and took out a pitcher of reconstituted powdered stuff. “Or whatever passes for milk here.”
“Thank you.” She held out the mug. “Just a little.”
“Whiskey would probably help more than tea.” Steve poured the milk, then set the pitcher back in the fridge. “I thought you’d be with our resident god.”
“Thor?” Steve’s description made Samantha laugh, though given how good Thor was in bed, maybe he reallywasdescended from Odin. “He has more important things to do than hold my hand when I’m feeling scared.”
“I hope the tea helps. Goodnight.”
She had to ask. “Are switchblades prohibited on station?”
“Switchblades?” He seemed to consider her question. “I don’t think we have an official switchblade policy. Who has a switchblade? One of the Cobra guys?”
“Vasily tried to give me one tonight. He came out of nowhere, showed me how to use it, and told me to protect myself. That’s part of the reason I can’t sleep.”
“Jesus.” Steve rubbed his jaw. “I can see why you’re tense. To be honest, I wish you all had gotten off the ground before the Russians realized they were stuck. They’re a pain in my ass. Two of them got in a fistfight in the lounge tonight over a fucking game of darts, and they weren’t even drunk. Just be careful, okay?”
“I will. Thanks, Steve. And goodnight.”
* * *
Thor metJones and Segal outside their rooms. They waited until no one else was around. Then Segal opened the vacant room with his bump key so that Thor could retrieve Patty’s journal.
“Thanks.” He locked the door behind him. “We’ve got a meeting at zero-six-hundred. You two get some sleep.”
Thor took the journal to his room and settled down for a long night. He decided to start reading with Patty’s arrival on station to make sure he didn’t miss anything. He’d gone only a few pages before he found himself smiling at her sense of humor and even laughing at her jokes.
“I’ve spent a winter here before, but when I stepped out of that plane and the cold hit me, a part of me wanted to hide under an airplane seat and sneak back to Christchurch. But Samantha would never forgive me if I left her here alone. Besides, she’d end up with a galaxy named after her, and I wouldn’t. I can’t let that happen, even if she is the smarter of the two of us.”
Did Samantha know that Patty thought she was the smarter one? Possibly. Samantha had said something at the memorial service about helping Patty with one of her science classes while Patty helped her get out of her shell.
“Feb. 28: There’s an obnoxious kid on station who keeps filming everyone and harassing the women. I swear this kid is an incel who somehow escaped his mother’s basement. I predict that someone will punch this little shit in his filthy mouth before we fly out in November. I hope so, anyway. Is that wrong?”
Thor had to agree with her on that one. He wrote down the date of this entry in case he came across more conflict with Jason.
“March 10: Lance and I hung out last night and talked until almost 1 a.m. He’s the IT guy this winter. I wasn’t too impressed with him at first. Okay, I won’t lie, I didn’t even notice him. Then we both ended up in the lounge watchingCitizen Kane.He knew so much about it. We’re having dinner tomorrow.”