Hidden Intentions

Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say.

Aleesha couldn't help but to think back to the air lock. The way that woman banged on the door. Sure, the glass may have been bullet proof and capable of withstanding the force of vacuum, but the strength someone possesses when they're about to experience death is uncanny.

The look in her eyes, the saliva flying from her lips as she screamed, the whitening of her knuckles as she yanked on the door. It may have been sealed perfectly shut, but Aleesha couldn't help but to fear that that woman had knocked part of the door out of place ever so slightly. Before she had left her post Aleesha had even gotten on the floor to check to see if there was a slight gap between the door and the floor.

"It's not that space is a vacuum that makes it such a problem for us," she thought back to her science classes in high school, "the real problem is that we have a pressure difference." Pacing the hallway she thought back to what she did after that woman was made to experience a pressure difference. "I'm surprised that somebody from Telescope Inc. was capable of stowing away amongst us. Normally it's the other way around, but for a scientist she was pretty street smart." Having dealt with bookworms her entire life, Aleesha knew that most of them could socialize to an extent, but the ones that were really adept at communication, you'd never know that they were scientist at all.

She sighed, "It's their little ticks that gave them away, it always does." Sure, they can be the best inventors, problem solvers, innovators, but when it came to being succinct and in a state of being human with everybody else, it was just something always about the scientist that made them stick out like a sore thumb. "Just like a candle alit in the dead of night atop a hill, it doesn't matter how well woven a wicker basket is that covers it; its light will always shine through." To her it seemed that no matter how well they tried to blend in, they would always let something slip. Whether it was something factually incorrect, how people were being treated, or whether it was just a social cue, there was something honest about themselves that they couldn't seem to keep hidden.

"And then there's you." She turned to pause and look at him. Sure, he didn't snore, but his breathing was whistling enough to catch her attention still. Turning over to the seat, she sat down next to him, "Oh Gerry, how did it all come to this?"

She couldn't help but to think of the day of their funeral. The kids were there. His niece still sucking on a binky, with a little bow in her head gowned in a little black dress, and his nephew a crying, snotty, mess in a suit.

"Why did mommy and daddy have to go?!" He yelled, "Why can't they be here with us now?! Why?! WHY?!"

Gerald knelt down to him, "I'm sorry little man. There are some things even I don't know."

"WHY COULDN'T THEY PROTECT EACH OTHER?!"

"There are some things so strong, so massive, so capable, that they render us incapable. What happened to them-," he choked on his tears for a brief moment, "I- I- I don't even know how to explain it to you. What happened to them was far beyond my current knowledge, and still is. I'm sorry buddy."

"WHY COULDN'T YOU PROTECT THEM?!"

"Even if I could, I wouldn't know how to. Trust me, I wish that it was me instead of them. Still, I love you all the same with all my heart. I know I'm not your mom, or your dad, but could you let me try?"

His nephew couldn't speak. Through high pitched sniffles, he clutched tightly to Gerald's leg. Feeling the pain of loss inside of his heart, he tried his best to dig his nails into his uncle's leg. He didn't want to feel this pain, to this extent alone.

"He's lashing out, but I'll allow it this time. I just hope I can discipline him the next time it happens," Gerald thought, or at least, that's the look Aleesha read on his face. She could see the pain, and how well he was at burying it. Knowing him, he would've just continued working even harder than ever before. If something didn't work out for him previously, Gerald was the kind of man to turn his pain into energy. It was like a natural reflex for him.

Sitting down in a seat across from him, she looked at his lips becoming chapped from his breathing, "Good grief, why am I remembering that night now?"

After the funeral had occurred, she arrived at his place later that evening. Sure, she may have been an agent for Force, but they were classmates and colleagues well before that. Besides, it wasn't like Gerald knew who her new employer was.

"Sure, I snuck my way into their place by getting to his heart, but is it wrong to say that I needed that too?" She thought back to the dinner he had made. The kids were asleep in bed after having crying themselves exhausted for the day. A steak dinner with garlic mashed potatoes and chilled red wine. "I'd never think you to be a drinker," a smile grew on her face as she looked at him in his sleep. "Then again, you do enjoy the finer things in life." Her thighs started to quiver, and her heart started to race a little. "I guess you could say I was one of those finer things in life."

Her mind raced back to the wine, stairs, dresses, and the headboard. "I'm surprised those kids stayed asleep with all the noise we made. Then again, I'm surprised you even slept that night. Talk about emotionally exhausted, huh?" Though, her work for infiltrating didn't stop there. Sure, she snooped around afterwards and found the blueprints stored in the beads of his nieces hair ties. "Maria sure was a smart cookie, I'll give her that. However, if it wasn't for her fascination with holographic blueprints and polyhedrons, I never would've found those patents. Still, why would she even hold onto such a thing. Isn't her brain a better safe?" Mulling over her thoughts, she came to this conclusion, "Well, at least the false stars and moon provided enough light for me to find them. If it wasn't for you sitting them on the desk and the light coming through at just the right angle, I surely wouldn't have seen the text come through. The beads were so black I wouldn't think any light could get through at all."

Looking at him, she puckered her lips while resting her head on her hand. With her rifle laid across her lap, she was just happy that he was kept alive. "Still glad you're here Gerry." Sure, she may have witnessed that woman be subject to the potential vacuum of space, as the air in her lungs left her body. "It looked like she was choking, but there was nothing in her windpipe to be heimliched. Why'd she have to grab her throat? She would've suffocated either way."

The suffocation wasn't the thing that worried her though. What worried her was that her body wasn't ejected from the Quilter. The orders from Albert sickened her to her stomach, let alone her mind. She couldn't think about ever being made subject to that. Even in her death. "Can't believe Albert told us to collect her body and bring her to disposal. I would've been fine sending her out into the depths of space, but grinding her down for material to make agar for our food farms is just sick, let alone disrespectful to the dead. Goodness, where'd he get such an idea; Wall-E, The Matrix?"

She's seen the cell culture farms. Sure, they had all the cells they needed to provide a well nutrient filled diet, and even enough plant and animal samples for a variety of meals. "Ugh... it's just cannibalism, but with extra steps." She'd rather eject herself from the Quilter than let anything like that happen to her.

Then for a moment, Gerald stirred. "Lalita. Ennackal. I'm home." She recognized those names that he had murmured in his sleep.

"A family man as always," a smile shone on her lips. "Oh Gerald, you're too sweet for this world. Sure, you're smart, but way too naïve, and that's why I like you." Kissing two fingers on her hand, she pressed them to his lips as to make an indirect kiss. "I can't wait to meet again." She looked at her bullet tips. Locking them quietly into her rifle's chamber, she knew what she had to do.

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