"Should you be doing that?"
Nerila finished fitting the new filter into the scrubber-drone and flicked the power switch before she looked up. Pilot stood watching her, arms tightly folded across her stomach and an upright line of worry between her blue eyes.
"I'm not sick," Nerila pointed out, setting the drone down and getting to her feet. "And it's not exactly heavy lifting, is it?"
"I guess not," Pilot said, her voice softer than usual.
The scrubber ran industriously into the nearest wall and stuck there, whining. Nerila sighed, and nudged it in the right direction with her foot. "Can we maybe take this conversation as read, Pilot? I have to herd these little fuckers all the way around to Section C before shift change."
Pilot watched the drone as it found a smudge of grease on the floor and started polishing it away, the low note of its engine changing tone to a happier-sounding hum. "As read?"
"Yeah, you know. You're going to ask me if I've changed my mind, I'm going to tell you I haven't, you're going to ask me to wait another day and since you're the one the marines at the security checkpoint answer to, I'm going to let you pretend you're not keeping me locked up here and say, okay, Pilot, one more day. Right?"
"Oh." The blue eyes showed hurt now, as well as worry, and Nerila looked away and then forced herself to look back. It's not like I care if her feelings are hurt, is it?
"So let's not, and say we did, all right?" Another scrubber got itself struck on lip of the section seal, and Nerila dislodged it with her toe and then started down the corridor after it, at the ambling pace she'd found kept her just about in sync with the drones.
Pilot turned and fell into step beside her. Shit. Nerila glanced down at her, about to say Fuck off already, and swallowed it back as the shift in light showed her for the first time how dark the shadows beneath Pilot's eyes had gotten.
She opened her mouth to ask, How are you feeling? or You not sleeping well? or Let's make an appointment for you, Pilot. Swallowed all those back as well.
It's not like I care, is it?
"It's not what I was going to say, anyway," Pilot said quietly. "It's, you know. Dr Iorthan said, with the dates and everything."
"I thought that was your plan," Nerila said. "One more day, Nerila, one more - for another six months, maybe?"
"No," Pilot said, softly but firmly.
"No? You're so fucking sure you know what I ought to be doing, isn't it?" Nerila kicked one of the drones forward harder than necessary and Pilot winced as it bounced off a wall with an indignant bleep. "Changed your mind?"
"No," Pilot said again, the same quiet certainty in her voice. "But if you're not going to change yours, not much I can do, really, is there?" She looked up at Nerila. "You don't really think I'd keep you locked up for the rest of the time, do you, like some sort of ... breeding stock?"
Well, no, Nerila had to admit, if only to herself. I didn't really think she would.
"It's not what I'd do," Pilot went on. "'And not what I think you'd do, if things were ... different. But whatever you chose, you know I'll do what I can to make it easy on you. Right?"
"So I can make the appointment?" Nerila asked. "Security will let me out of the hangar?"
"Oh, you don't need to go anywhere," Pilot said. "I checked with Dr Iorthan and there's no reason you can't have the termination in medical here."
"Right," Nerila said.
"We could go now, if you want," Pilot went on. She stooped to coax one of the little scrubber drones forward to keep up with the others.
"I can't go now," Nerila said immediately. "I have to get this done."
"Later, then. After shift change," Pilot suggested, straightening again.
Nerila shook her head. "Medical runs main-and-alterday shifts like everybody else. Night shift's no time for elective procedures."
"Mmmhmm," Pilot said. "Then I should get security to escort you around to station medical after all. Straight after shift-change suit you?"
"Sure," Nerila said. "But, you know, there's no need to put security to the trouble. I can go up to medical tomorrow, maybe."
"Tomorrow?"
Nerila shrugged. "A day's not going to make any real difference, is it?"
Pilot nudged one of the drones with her foot. "It isn't?"
"Nah." Nerila took another clean filter from her belt pack and knelt down as a scrubber dashed over to her, beeping piteously. "Just a day, after all."
"Sure," Pilot said. She knelt down beside Nerila and picked up the drone, holding it for Nerila to change the filter. "Just a day."
"That's right." The filter snapped in neatly and Pilot let the scrubber go. Nerila watched it race off to join the others as they polished their way along the corridor, leaving the floor pale and clean behind them.
She turned to meet Pilot's level gaze. "Just a day, Pilot. That's all."
"Sure," Pilot said again. She got to her feet and held out her hand. "Not like it makes any real difference."
Nerila hesitated, and then put her hand in Pilot's, her own long, square-tipped fingers a dark contrast to Pilot's pale, clone-soft skin. Soft or not, Nerila thought, as Pilot pulled her to her feet, stronger than you'd expect.
"Thanks," she muttered, taking her hand back.
Pilot smiled a little. "You're welcome, Nerila," she said softly. "You're welcome."
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