Station Atlantis Chapter 1
Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say. Randall found himself questioning that fact upon hearing Rachel and Jamie in the room next to him. Not since he was a freshman in undergrad did Randall Jackson have to contend with roommates having loud sex at the witching hour. On his day off. He had heard them going at it at around 21:00 SIM Time the night prior, just as he began preparing for bed, and had thought that they were through with it then. Nope. Whatever spark of passion inspired them to wake up at 04:00 and fuck was beyond Randall's knowledge. No way their circadian rhythms still aligned with their home time zones on Earth. Perhaps their bodies had gotten too used to the emergency drills and now woke up at random times in the night. Maybe one of them had a nightmare of a Xenocephalopod devouring them whole, he had nightmares like those sometimes. Or maybe one of them had a dream of home, and awoke homesick and in need of comfort. Randall had dreams like those too. At Station Atlantis, built into the icy crust of Europa, intimacy was easily ignited by loneliness. Regardless, Rachel and Jamie were awake, and so was Randall. Knowing he wouldn’t fall back asleep, Randall sat up and stretched before inching out of bed. Amid the thumps and moans arising from the other room, he changed out of his nightclothes into a tank-top and basketball shorts, and made his way towards the exercise room.
