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“Look, I know you’re mad at me still, but that doesn’t mean we need to suffer,” Boimler sighed, glancing over at Mariner as she shivered uncontrollably next to the open console.
“I’m not mad,” she grumbled, “I’m furious.”
“It’s not my fault!” He protested.
“‘Mariner, let’s take a detour and investigate this rogue planet,’” she imitated his voice, sticking her head into the fried console to get a better look.
He closed his eyes for a moment to calm himself, taking a deep breath and blowing it out slowly. It probably was his fault, he reasoned, but he wasn’t going to admit that to her at this moment.
“Dammit!” she cursed for the fifteenth time, “there’s no way to fix the comms. They’re just too fried.”
Boimler was silent, not wanting to anger her further. He just wished things would go back to normal. He never should have suggested that they visit the planet, and he never should have tried to orchestrate more alone time with her.
He stood up and walked over to her cautiously, setting a ration bar next to her foot before quietly going back to his spot across the cabin from her. The dull grey sky outside of the wrecked shuttle was growing darker as another snowstorm seemed to be brewing. At this point, Boimler had no idea how long they’d been on the planet’s surface, he just knew that he was exhausted.
Within the first hour of their crash landing on the frosty planet, they had broken out the emergency supplies, which included the rations, extreme weather gear, and some thermal blankets. Standard survival protocol stated that they should share body heat by huddling together under the same blanket. Boimler had been too afraid to suggest it to Mariner, despite the fact that she was obviously freezing.
“If I tell you I’m sorry, will you at least come over here and share a blanket with me? We don’t even have to look at each other or talk or anything,” Boimler’s tone almost pleading as she started at him, shivering.
“It had better be the best apology I’ve ever heard,” she scoffed, grabbing the ration bar before standing up to lean against the bulkhead.
“Mariner, I’m sorry I—“
“And you better apologize for making me miss the poker tournament,” she interrupted huffily.
“I—“
“And I had the holodeck booked for all of us,” she interrupted again.
“I’m sorry! I just wanted to spend some time with you!” Boimler finally yelled, Mariner snapping her mouth shut instantly.
There was a long pause before Mariner, looking down at her feet, said, “What do you mean?”
Boimler sighed, rubbing his face with his gloved right hand. “We’ve just been so busy since we got promoted. We haven’t had any missions together and well… I’ve missed you.”
She didn’t say anything, so he continued. “So, when the chance to do an easy transport mission came up, I asked Ransom to assign us to it so we could hang out… and I thought it would be fun to explore this planet together.”
Her eyes met his and she could see that he was sincere. She uncrossed her arms and walked over to where he was sitting on the floor.
“Scoot over. And give me some blanket,” she commanded, plopping down next to him. He was silent as he spread one blanket over her lap and then wrapped the other around her shoulders. She leaned into him, linking her arm through his and pulling him closer.
“Why do you have to be so nice sometimes?” She grumbled again, looking straight ahead as they leaned against a console.
He felt a smile cross his lips and he glanced at her out of the corner of his eye.
“I’m sorry we crashed,” he whispered to her, turning his face toward her.
“You owe me a poker game,” she whispered back, a small smile showing him that she wasn’t too terribly mad at him anymore.
“There’s a deck of cards in the survival kit. I don’t know how to play but maybe you could show me. I think we have the time,” Boimler suggested, getting up to get the deck of cards.
“Okay but hurry back over here. I’m freezing,” she said, shivering again, causing her teeth to chatter.
The card backs were printed with ships of the line, but Mariner didn’t care as she shuffled the cards and began explaining the rules to Boimler. She grumbled as her gloved hands clumsily dealt the cards, dropping a few as she laid out their hands.
“Who taught you how to play?” Boimler asked as Mariner studied her cards. Her first instinct was to be annoyed at his question, but she heard his voice in her head saying, “I’ve missed you,” so she looked up at him with a soft smile.
“My mom. She was taught by Will Riker when she was on the Enterprise. Apparently, my dad proposed to my mom because he finally beat her in poker one night. They told me the story once but Mom refuses to tell me the story again. She almost slipped up and said strip poker when she was telling it, so I think the story is a little more involved than I was told.”
Boimler watched the smile on her face as she finished talking, their knees touching as they sat as close together as possible while still hiding their cards.
An hour later, the cabin was too dark for poker. They had chosen to preserve the chemical flares for an emergency, leaving the two of them huddled together in the dark and freezing shuttle. Boimler had offered to take the first “night watch” shift because Mariner had been yawning over and over as she finally got warm enough to stop shivering violently.
“Just lay down. Put your head on my leg or something,” Boimler persuaded as Mariner handed him a phaser and reluctantly tried to relax. She laid her head in his lap, readjusting one of the blankets to cover them both.
Mariner was silent, her breathing slowing, so he thought she was sleeping. He nearly jumped when she softly said, “I’ve missed you too, you know.”
She turned her head to look up at him, their eyes meeting in the dark. He didn’t know what else to say, but a few butterflies fluttered in his stomach as they stared at each other.
“Have you been okay?” He finally asked.
“I was okay until T’lyn told me about your mission at the power station,” Mariner said, her brow furrowed.
He chuckled uncomfortably as she watched him intensely.
“Boims… you died. And you didn’t tell me about it,” she said, pausing, “We used to tell each other everything.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t want to talk about it,” he explained, “But I was going to tell you about it when the right moment came along. It… well, it seemed like you were going through your own stuff.”
She sighed, giving him a small smile. “I know. I should have talked to you too.”
“We have time now, if you’re not too tired,” he suggested. She nodded and sat back up, turning to face him but staying close to his warmth.
He felt colder after her head left his lap, and he remembered how much he used to enjoy being physically close to her. He reached out to offer her his gloved hand, wanting to feel connected to her again.
She took her gloves off and gently removed his as well. Taking his hand in hers, she pulled the blanket around them. “You first,” she smiled.
“So, um, I don’t remember everything. But I remember the Koala. And I was in a room, and the Koala spoke and then I was in some kind of backwards wormhole. And… well, I saw your face.”
She raised an eyebrow as she looked at him, “You did? What was I doing?”
It was one of the images that he remembered clearly, but he wasn’t about to tell her that he saw them kissing and that the Koala smiled.
“Uh, just smiling, looking ethereal,” he said. He could make out her face in the dark and saw that she was squinting skeptically.
“What?” He croaked.
“Was that all that happened?”
“No,” he breathed in a whisper.
“It’s okay, you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to,” she smiled.
He felt her squeeze his hand. “We haven’t gotten to see each other enough since our promotions. Not sleeping beside each other has cut into our social time.”
He laughed and squeezed her hand back. “It was nice that the Universe arranged this quality time for us,” he said with a smile.
“Maybe it was the Koala,” she shrugged with a giggle.
“Tell me what happened on the glass rain planet. You seem to be feeling better than you were after Ferenginar.”
“I am,” she smiled, looking at him and linking her fingers with his, “It’s funny that it took a Klingon to finally help me realize that my issues with promotion centered on Sito. And I promise I’ll tell you the whole story some day, but it’s complicated.”
“It’s okay, I’ll be here any time you want to talk. We need to do better about talking to each other. You, um… you mean everything to me,” he managed to say, stumbling over his words.
“Boims,” she said softly, “are you sure you don’t want to tell me what the Koala showed you?” It was as if she knew what he had seen. Their eyes met again in the dim light.
He was silent for a solid minute, trying to figure out how much of a risk he was willing to take. Her left hand was on his leg as she rubbed the back of his hand with her right thumb. It felt like time stopped while he tried to decide what to do.
“Do you really want to know?” He whispered, leaning closer to her.
“I do,” she whispered back, leaning in as well.
“Well… it was something like this,” he whispered, trying to force his hand to stop shaking as he gently touched her cheek. They leaned together, Mariner willing him not to chicken out at the last second.
He kissed her shyly at first until she pulled him closer by grabbing the front of his silver cold weather gear. The shuttle didn’t seem so cold anymore as she climbed into his lap and wrapped her arms around his neck to kiss him again.
“I thought you’d never take the lead,” she breathed, her forehead resting against his.
He couldn’t help but smile as he closed his eyes to savor the moment. “I never thought I would either,” he laughed.
“I thought I gave you enough signs,” she said, reaching up to play with his hair, “but you never got the hint.”
“I guess I have the Koala to thank,” he said as he met her eyes.