‘SEE YOU MORNING’ 158 Longing in the Deep Space

On the first morning of the Saturn elliptical orbit mission, well, let’s call it that for now. Morning and night here were merely the frequency of artificial lighting changes designed to maintain the human circadian rhythm. Lübeck was already awake. The temporal coordinates corresponded to the year 1931 on Earth, and the ship was currently riding the gravitational slingshot of Jupiter to accelerate.
By the time his own ship reached its perigee, it would likely be the early 1940s. In his previous life, he had left Germany with Ruth before that war began, thus avoiding being dragged into the European theater. Should he go visit that Ruth? Every clear afternoon, every wisp of dawn’s light, bore her silhouette and countenance.
Recalling the past, he tilted his head to one side. Brittany was still fast asleep, her body curled on her side, her lush, youthful short hair covering her cheek. The medical station aboard had been burdened with heavy duties lately, requiring physical check-ups on the crew following the temporal transit; the workload was immense. Lübeck tried his best not to disturb her rest.
Having served in the Secret Space Program for so long, he understood why they were deployed at this specific juncture. It was because the nuclear detonations on Earth would soon attract extraterrestrial life from all corners of the universe coming to investigate. The impact of those blasts was an existence that pierced through every dimension.
Lübeck’s mission with the Aerospace Carrier was to use its deployed fighters to intercept unauthorized visitors. Of course, they weren’t the only ship in orbit; there were others stationed at different spatial and temporal coordinates. Just as visitors from afar might not appear at any predictable time or place, Lübeck and his crew were waiting by the stump for the hare.
“Ah,” Brittany stretched lazily and opened her eyes.
“Get up, let’s go have breakfast. We’re almost out of time.”
“I don’t want to,” Brittany squinted at Lübeck standing by the bedside.
“Alright, stretch again and get up,” Lübeck said, pulling off her blanket. He had long since figured out how to handle his little lazybug.
“No way,” Brittany remained sprawled on the bed, stretching her limbs, smiling mischievously at Lübeck.
Lübeck didn’t say a word. With one hand, he grabbed her ankle; with the other, he took her uniform trousers and directly slipped one leg in, then the other.
Brittany stopped struggling to stretch, watching her man dress her with happiness in her eyes.
“Up,” Lübeck pulled Brittany up into a sitting position on the bed. Her arms dangled like a puppet with cut strings as Lübeck manipulated them to put on her uniform top.
“Out of bed.”
She enjoyed being handled like this. He lifted her legs, turned her body to face the edge of the bed—though why did it feel like she was disabled? Thinking of this, Brittany couldn’t hold back her laughter.
“What are you laughing at?” Lübeck asked, pulling her down to stand on the floor.
“I was thinking, if one day I get old…”
“Hmm, what about it?” Lübeck’s attention seemed still focused on dressing her.
He pulled up her trousers, stood behind her, tested the elastic, fastened her belt, bent down to smooth the cuffs, then zipped up her jacket and straightened her collar. While busy, he asked,
“What happens when you’re old?”
Brittany didn’t speak. She turned around, wrapped her arms around Lübeck’s waist, and leaned into his embrace.
Lübeck felt that something was missing in his busy morning routine. He gave her buttock a sharp slap, then squeezed it firmly.
“Ah!”
“Come on, let’s go eat breakfast.”
“Mhm.”
The morning hours were truly insufficient. After a hurried breakfast, the two headed to their respective posts.
Having just returned from age reversal, Lübeck found all the crew members to be newcomers. There was no method to lead such a fresh team other than getting to know each member individually.
So basically, every day he went to greet every crew member at the pilot seats and the combat command center, chatting with them about their work and personal lives. Only then would he return to his captain’s chair to observe and read through various data and intelligence summaries.
Lübeck seemed to have an innate need for security regarding environmental perception. But in deep space, active radar scanning was practically useless. He liked to flip through electromagnetic spectrum monitoring records or listen to the sounds of pulsars from the depths of the universe during his downtime.
Then he would check the disturbances in the gravity field and the positions of the deployed Interceptor fighters. In deep space, the most convenient way to locate them was relative to the mothership.
Lunchtime seemed to be the only调剂 (regulator) for the monotonous work of such a long voyage in a confined space, not just for Lübeck, but for everyone, especially the young enlisted crew.
Today, he and Brittany came to the mess hall. Young soldiers and service personnel, men and women, some talking, some laughing—it was the starkest contrast between the inside and outside of the ship.
And Brittany’s smiling face was the vitality of his spring.
“Erich, do you miss me?”
Lübeck smiled without answering, just quietly looking into Brittany’s eyes.
“Let me feed you,” Brittany said, cutting a piece of bread with her mess knife, spreading jam on it, and bringing it to Lübeck’s mouth.
Through Brittany’s eyes, he seemed to travel through time and see Ruth standing before him in his childhood.
“Erich, are you hungry? Eat,” it was her, handing him the sweet potato she had roasted after digging it from the ground.
It tasted just as sweet as back then, just as caring were those eyes, her very visage.
“Okay, thank you. You eat too,” Lübeck said, lowering his head and turning away, eating his lunch alone.
“Look at that one, the dark-haired female medic. Her ex-boyfriend didn’t pass the assessment and she’s single now. So many guys are buzzing around her.”
“Look at that one with white hair and blue eyes? He even tried to hit on me. I rejected him. So annoying,” Brittany said, stuffing a large bite of food into her mouth.
“Hmph, doesn’t even bother to ask around. I’ve been taken for ages.” She puffed out her cheeks and glanced sideways in that direction.
Lübeck said nothing, simply wrapping his arm around Brittany’s waist, gently caressing her body.
The idle态势 (situation) display screens in the combat center that afternoon, and the figures of crew members coming and going, mingled with the thoughts of Brittany, replaying in his mind like a montage, intertwining with her face before him in the current night, like an illusion.
Holding her waist, kissing her neck, as if making up for the debt owed that morning.
Brittany tilted her head back, exposing her entire neck, letting every inch of her skin await Lübeck’s kiss. Her collarbones, her shoulders, all eagerly awaited his attention.
As she swayed slightly, Brittany’s silky hair brushed against Lübeck’s cheek.
In his arm was Brittany’s warmth, in his breath was Brittany’s scent, and in his searching was Brittany’s gentle tolerance.
For some reason, at the very beginning of this deep-space deployment, Lübeck felt a profound longing for attachment, here in this endless void.