Meditation & Maryam

8.3.5 SW
Late Morning SW-CP-Local Time
Crowning Point > Hex 2 Maintenance Bay

The lonely technician sat in silence, meditating on the day before silently in his mind. His eyes were closed, closed so tight it was as if they were locked. Shusett saw the images of those who were now gone: the crew of the Sotillo that had been damned by this cursed planet. He felt responsible, he feared Cowboy's reaction, he feared that Weyland-Yutani would find him. But most of all he felt awful, his few hours of sleep had been interrupted by that call. Irving hoped that working would knock him out of this bad mood. Maryam sneaked up behind him and gently tapped his shoulder. "Morning Irving," Maryam said cheerily. He remained silent. "Are you okay?" she continued.

"I'm just a bit tired that's all."

"Did you not sleep well last night?"

"Unfortunately no," he huffed.

"Nightmares?"

"Some, I guess," Irving lied, his tone seemed convincing enough. "How are you today?"

"I'm good, ready for another productive day. It's funny my roommate said she saw someone fixing a vending machine yesterday, she described you and said you seemed very nice."

"Really?"

"Yeah, her name's Nila."

"I think I remember her," Irving forced a smile onto his face, he did remember the girl near the vending machine. "I do remember."

"You single Irving?"

"I am — are you asking me out?" he asked nervously.

"No, Nila's single, maybe I should hook you too up. She needs to get out the house more," Maryam chuckled. She ran her thumb down her Sutter-Lynk device waiting for Irving to accept her offer.

"Maybe."

"I'll send her your number," Maryam smiled. Irving admittedly didn't trust her, he had heard rumours of Maryam's pranks on the others in the building. Her smile didn't help her case either. He imagined that actually messaging this girl 'Nila' would result in a quick angry reply.

"I'll think about it - can I get back to what I was doing?" Irving said, this surprised Maryam, she had found Irving strange but never snappy. She nodded and backed off quietly. Irving closed his eyes again and went back to the world of his mind.

TBC