And it would definitely not be smart of Alexander to lie to her.
Especially when either pilot might've seen something...
I feel like I somewhat went back and forth, and not really kept a line.... I just wrote this down as it came, during my "coffee break"....Alex tried to squeeze back on Beryl's hand, to reassure her and to lure her to grip a tad less tight.
How hard will she squeeze, once the computer and Talon will actually start their evasive maneuvers?
Beryl turned to Alex again. "Tempo has a question for you. How widespread is this meditation among your people? And why do your people do that?"
Alex, taking up the chance to distract himself while the countdown to the hard maneuvers ticked down: "Somewhat widespread. It is a good exercise when in stress. To calm down. To forget the stress, make the mind just wander freely and forget about any worries and sorrows for a short while, which helps releasing the body tension coming with stress. It is present in nearly all cultures, in one form or the other, but not practiced by everyone."
"50 solons"
"We also have quite a range of meditation techniques. Quietness. Music. Certain medications, natural and chemical ones." Alex continued, just to block out any other thoughts.
And with that, the shuttle made a hard lurch, but the gravity Alexander felt immediately ebbed down again. The inertial dampers must've kicked in. But the station visible through the window moved faster and faster out of the middle.
Then a bright, greenish flash came over the screen, seemingly from the station towards the shuttle. The shuttle shuddered violently.
Alex felt a sharp pain in his hand.
Alex heard Spiral's voice: "Gora-Relay: we can confirm hit. The missile has been destroyed. But the explosion caused a leak in our tank, we are loosing fuel fast. We will decelerate as much as possible, but we cannot land purely on our own power anymore. Can you catch us?"
"We have also several techniques, but to learn to control the Sanzai, quietness works best. How does that work, using medications?" came Beryl's curious voice.
"Highland Seven, we will try to catch you, but you need to move out of the way. There are more missiles inbound, and they are using you as a shield to prevent us from firing at them. Fly past us, and we will catch up to you."
The pain finally reached Alex' brain: "Ouch! Beryl, could you please stop pressing so hard on my hand? I think you ..."
Beryl stopped pressurizing Alex hand, but did not let fully go. She pulled his hand and arm towards her, and looked at his hand.
"Did I hurt you? I thought shaking hands is common among Humans, I thought your hands would therefore be used to being gripped?"
"Yes, we are, but your grip is somewhat stronger than most Humans can exert. And especially the small finger is prone to being broken with us Humans. I think you might've hit a weak spot..."
The station was not visible on the screen anymore.
Beryl's hand shot away from Alexander, as if it was poisoned. In her face was slight disgust. 'Disgust at us being weak to have a broken bone so fast?' was Alex first thought. He pulled over his hand and examined it.
He felt the shuttle move slightly erratically, and wished for some painkillers.
"I am so sorry, Enzin Jardin." came Beryl's voice. "Shall we meditate again to 'release the body tension'?"
Then the engine died down, causing a weird feeling of inverted gravity in the shuttle, which shortly afterwards went away when the inertial dampers stopped.
"Gora-Relay: We are out of fuel and cannot move by ourselves anymore. Please inform us of the situation whenever you can and feel it might be helpful for us." came Spiral's voice.
Talon turned around and said "Well, now we are fully dependent on Gora Relay."
"Highland Seven: We are currently targeting the missiles and have started moving ourselves between you and the aggressor. Please wait."
Alex, somewhat disoriented from the multiple conversations around him, answered: "I don't think meditation will heal my body physically. I fear you do not have pain medication for me accessible?"
"We have emergency kits in the shuttle, but I fear the medication in it will not be agreeable for your biochemistry. And while we have some of the stuff we collected from your ship in the shuttle, we have stored all in the storage bay, where it is currently not accessible. Furthermore we cannot differentiate your markings to identify harmful and helpful stuff. And the situations so far have not given rise to an occasion to ask you to help us identifying what is what." came Beryl's answer. Although Alexander had the feeling, this was actually Tempo's answer, and just coming through Beryl's mouth.
Alex looked at his hand, which had a distinct reddish bulb on it. And the pain was throbbing slightly with his heart rhythm.
'Okay, let's go for distractions, then.' Alex thought, and looked at the tactical screen, which showed the station moving slowly closer to the shuttle, fending off small red dots moving fast towards the shuttle and the station. "Beryl, no meditation like we just did will not help. It frees my mind from outside stimula, but usually I cannot eliminate stimula from my body." He heard a seatbelt lock click. "And blending out outside stimula would focus my thoughts only more on the pain in my hand. I don't think it is broken, though. But a stiff drink to inebriate myself would do wonders for my anxiety right now."
He heard Talon's voice over the shuttle speakers: "Remain seated and keep the belts on. Expect bumpy maneuvers from the station as we get within the range of their inertial dampening field. The enemy is also still firing on us, expect closeby explosions. And our inertial dampers will not be working at full efficiency without fuel for our engines."
Suddenly, he felt Beryl leaning over, and she kissed him.
I don't even fully know where I wanted to go, but then these writing prompts are intended to leave a cliffhanger so the next can continue.