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The botany lab in the research station on Tau Theta VI always smelled of strawberries.
Beau had apologized for this many times. After all, he had been the one to smuggle jam in and get it stuck in the ventilation system. He didn't really mind the smell--it was pleasant enough--but it was also a constant reminder of his foolish misstep, and the other scientists used the constant smell as an excuse to tease him.
In the dining hall today, it was no different. Summers on Tau Theta VI were blindingly hot, and that meant the temperature regulator running full time trying to cool the research station, its precious equipment, and the researchers themselves. This led to the faint smell of strawberries being spread throughout the station.
It also led to Geno the microbiologist wrinkling up his nose as Beau sat down at one of the small circular tables that was supposed to "promote community" and "instill a sense of teamwork" in the research station staff. Next to him, Flower the software engineer snickered and whispered something in French to Tanger the chemist and David the psychologist. Tanger laughed while David tilted his head thoughtfully, and on any other day, Beau's curiosity would have gotten the better of him.
However, since it was dinnertime, and since by station time it was Year 19 Sol 286, Beau wasn't really paying attention. This date had been marked in his mind since Year 18 Sol 371, the day the last transport back to earth had left.
The anticipation was almost killing him, and he barely tasted the food that he was shoveling into his mouth.
"Really enjoying your perfume, Sunshine," said Sid the station commander, leaning on the table with a lopsided smile on. Duper the resource manager gave him a joking glare, saying "I used that two lunes ago and it wasn't even that great, think of your own damn jokes."
"It doesn't really matter," Amanda (one of the other botanists) cut in, leaning on the back of her brother Phil the geologist's chair, "he's obviously not listening. And I don't blame him."
"Fuck you, we're funny," Flower laughed, and Amanda shook her head.
"Not like that," she said. "Poor guy's just got something else on his mind."
"Poor guy? All right, what's he thinking about?"
"Well, the transport that you guys said left over eleven lunes ago should have finally reached Earth this morning, according to the logs."
"Oh," David said, looking surprisingly pensive. Duper grinned knowingly. Tanger and Flower seemed a little confused, but there was more French whispering and the two exploded into delighted laughter. Geno, for his part, was smiling like Christmas had come early.
Beau, who had begun to pay attention, decided that it might be better if he stopped paying attention. He shoveled his last bite of dinner in his mouth and got up to place his "dishes" in the wash.
"I don't get it," Sid complained, "what's so big about that transport?"
Geno laughed. "Sunshine missing other half, dummy."
Yeah, definitely time to get out of there.
"I mean, I know how it feels," Amanda said. "When you haven't seen the person you love in a while, you get a little desperate. And when you see them again, even if it's just spacetiming, things can get a little steamy."
Phil groaned and covered his ears. "I did not need to hear that."
"Overall, when it's been practically a year, it's quite normal to be acting like a lovesick puppy..." was the last thing Beau heard as he exited the dining hall.
Beau returned to his room rather hastily, stopping in the bathroom to tidy up a little. He then did a little organizing of his things, which was very unusual. Finally, there were no other tasks to hide behind, and he had to grab his station tablet and admit to himself that he was just waiting for the call to come.
It was supposed to come around 3:00 Earth time, which today was about 9:35 station time--days on Tau Theta VI were 25 hours and 17 minutes long. It was now 8:06.
Beau frowned and opened Mars Wars™, rejoining the station's group campaign. The actual "Mars Wars" had been simple diplomatic disagreements, easily and peacefully resolved. The game was still interesting, though, and made up for what it lacked in historical accuracy with an intricate plot and stunning graphics.
Currently, Olli and Pooh were fighting against the establishment in the ruins of the original Martian dome city, and Beau helped them shoot things and blow stuff up. The torn canvas from the city blew in a strangely powerful wind, and red sand gathered in the air to obscure vision and make it harder to shoot things and blow stuff up.
The call came at 9:32, and Beau immediately left the game without an explanation. He'd been waiting 367 sols for this, they could afford to carry on without him.
The screen flickered and steadied, and then Borts was staring out of the screen at him, smiling and saying, "Hello, stranger." There were bags under his eyes and about three days' worth of stubble dotting his jawline, but Beau thought he looked fucking fabulous.
Oh god how he'd missed him.
"Hello yourself," he replied, grinning wildly. It had been over an Earth year since he'd seen that face. Of course, they'd talked, but space travel wasn't particularly good for face-to-face videoconferencing of any kind, let alone spacetiming. "How's Earth?"
"Still turning." It was an old joke, and no one laughed at it anymore, but they both smiled.
"A lot of your old Earth friends want to talk to me," Borts continued. "Judging by my messages, at least."
"Tell them to spacetime me. I'm a government employee, it's practically free." On a noncommercial stream, such as the ones in the research station, the price was mostly shouldered by the space agency and the universities that put it up.
"Normally I would, but..." Borts trailed off and turned away from the camera for a second to shout a quick "Busy now, come back later," at the timid knocking on his room's off-screen door. Then he continued.
"Anyway, there's been a bit of a spacetiming scandal recently. I mean, this line's a good secure one, it's got NASA engineers at all ends. But some of the commercial ones have been getting hacked."
Beau frowned. "Well, that's not good."
"Understatement of the century right there. Some big tidbits of personal information have gotten out. It's the biggest hack since the thing six years ago with the British economy being halfway deflated."
"Shit, I remember that--it was back right before my first trip up."
"Right before we met," Borts said, and smiled again, but Beau couldn't help but notice that it looked a bit strained.
He leaned forward. "You okay?" he asked.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Just got a couple things on my mind."
"No, something's wrong. What is it? Did you commit an unspeakable offense? Will I need to bust you out of jail? Do I need to come fight someone for you? Because that would be horribly impractical, you're much better at this 'fighting' thing than I am..."
Borts laughed loudly, and Beau's stomach did a bit of a charanga. "No, Sunshine, you don't need to fight anyone. I just got a bit of not too great news."
"What?"
Borts didn't answer.
"What is it, Robert?"
Borts sighed, looking everywhere but the screen. "I'm gonna have to go back up soon."
"What?!"
"They're short on the Gamma Phi station, and I'm the only available botanist they can send there."
"I thought Gamma Phi was low level flora, only needed one botanist."
"Well, it's still low level, but they lost the one they had."
"What do you mean, Borts?"
"Tech failure. Not fatal, but the original botanist--fellow named Oshie, poor guy--they're sending him back to Earth to recover and adjust to life with eight fingers and a permanent arm brace."
"Oh. Wow. Ouch. That sucks big."
"Yeah."
Beau was silent for a few seconds. "When do you go?" he asked eventually.
Borts glanced at something off the screen, hesitated, and then quietly said, "In a couple months."
Beau shrugged. It was unavoidable. Anyway, the trip wouldn't be as long this time, and once Borts was out at the Gamma Phi station, they'd be able to spacetime each other just the same.
"We'll make it," he said, smiling at the screen. "It's only, what eight Earth months to Gamma Phi?"
"Seven," Borts replied, and he was smiling again.
"Well, that's even better, hardly a wait at all!"
"Yeah, like a few seconds," Borts said, and then, "I love you, Beau."
Beau hummed contentedly. "Love you too, Robert," he replied.
There was a moment of comfortable silence.
"So, tell me what's changed on Tau Theta VI," Borts said, settling back into his chair to view the screen more comfortably. "Any good new gossip?"
"Oh god, lots, it's been crazy here. We got our new researchers a few weeks ago--there's another brother-sister team among them. The guy's a geologist named Phil, painfully shy at first, but he's more relaxed now. His sister Amanda is a botanist, and she seems to spend her free time either trolling people in the cleverest ways possible or spacetiming her girlfriend out on of the Lambda planets."
Borts whistled. "Lambda? I didn't think there was anything worth studying out there..."
Beau shrugged. "Rocks... darkness... chem shit... you know, that kind of thing."
"Not worth it. No plants."
They both laughed, and then Borts asked, "And how's Pooh doing?"
"Oh god, well, he's finally realized that Sid's actually ok with it, thinks it's a good match for Taylor, but because he's Pooh he hasn't made a move yet. T's getting a bit exasperated--she said that if he hasn't asked her out by the end of this lune, she's going to lock him in the airlock and give him a traditional Crosby lecture on matters of the heart."
"Oh, please film that. If it happens." Borts sounded eager and wistful at the same time, and there were so many things that Beau wanted to do--and most of them contradicted each other--but they were separated by trillions upon trillions of miles of silent, spread-out space.
"Any other news, Sunshine?" Borts asked, and Beau forced himself to stop staring at Borts' open collar.
"Well, on the topic of relationships, Sid and G are still together, the French threesome is still going strong, and Olli has finally gotten with a certain young blond geologist that we sent off to Chi Mu."
"What, Kasperi's gone? When did that happen?"
"A few months ago. He and Olli had about three sweet weeks of bliss and mushroom soup before distance was imposed. Chi Mu's fairly close, though, so they can spacetime now, too."
"Does Olli still have a mushroom soup hoard?"
"With the recent supply run here, he does. Since he's got so much of it, though, we can't use it to bribe him anymore."
"What?! Awww... but those were the best pranks... the French prank circle's gotta be so pissed."
Beau laughed. "Remember the time we got Olli to rework one of the showers?"
"Ah, that was the best, I can still hear Flower's scream."
"Like, it would've been good no matter who we got, but pranking the prankster made it so much better."
"Yeah, that was perfect," Borts said. "Even better than the time we teamed up with him and filled Tanger's shampoo bottle with algae. Oh, yeah, and speaking of algae, how are the plantlets doing?"
"Our little green guys are fine. Still surprisingly similar to Earth algae. Photosynthesizing like pros, all nice and green. I think they love the lab environment."
"Does the 'lab environment' still smell like strawberries?"
Beau sighed. Even with his boyfriend, he couldn't escape it.
A sudden knocking from the other end of the line interrupted, and Borts veered off-screen again and shouted, "Who is it?" at a door Beau could not see. He also couldn't hear the muffled response, but since Borts was a researcher who had just gotten back from space, it was probably important.
This was confirmed when Borts reappeared on the screen, looking a little exasperated. "Sorry, Sunshine, there's a man from the government here for me--"
"You mean someone from NASA?"
"--and I must go bravely to my fate. I love you with all of of my heart. Think of me each night before you sleep, and do not forget this poor soul's love."
"Will do," Beau laughed, "and if you ever feel bad and need or want me to fight someone, just call and I'll come get my ass handed to me. Actually, I kind of like my bones unbroken, so that offer's dead. But I will be stupid for you whenever you need it."
"Gee, thanks."
"Only for you, Borts. Love you."
"Love you too, Beau. Bye."
"Bye."
Later that night, as Beau was lying on his standard issue NASA-approved mattress, he remembered the joking words Borts had said--"Think of me each night before you sleep,"--and snorted a laugh. Apparently he was doing just that. What great luck he'd had, to end up with such an awesome boyfriend.
Even with the strawberry jokes and nosy researchers poking at his love life, it had been a good day.