Life Guard (Day 1 Afternoon)

Vas marched into the water marching steadfast through a wave to calmer but deeper water. “ … So the key to floating is to relax, not panic. It’s like being shot …” Vas explained turing to look to Serena when the water reached his waist.

“I didn’t like being shot,” Serena reminded him, “and I don’t much remember it happening, so I think there might have been some sorta panicking going on.”

“Exactly. Never panic.” Vas stressed. “When you get shot most of the time it ain’t the wound that kills you, it’s the shock from panicking. Water is the same way, you panic, you lose air you sink and you drown. Always keep calm, you do that and you can always float.” Vas explained walking to deeper water still. “So this is something even little kids can do, so that means you can do it right?” He reasoned the water now up to his chest.

“Little kids don’t know how to spacewalk,” Serena countered. “I don’t wanna learn little kid stuff on account of I’m not a little kid.”

“Oh … then by all means float like a little kid … ‘cuz if you can float like a kid you can’t swim, it may be little kid stuff but it doesn't make it less important to learn.” Vas said with an arched eyebrow. “But if you insist I can teach you the way I learned …” He offered. “ … definitely not like a little kid.”

“Fine, we can learn like a little kid,” Serena chuffed. First Lyen and the doc with books meant for babies, and now Crew Chief was doing the same. “What do we do first?”

“Real easy … deep slow breath, relax your body, like how you rest in your beat after drills, lean back … and the water does the rest … like so…” Vas leaned back and like magic he started bobbing in the water on his back. “See? Try it!”

The crew chief made it look easy -- too easy in fact. “I usually lie on my side,” she told him, but tried mimicking his actions. “Deep slow breath, relax your body and the water does the rest,” she repeated. But, Serena decided, the water didn’t want to do the rest on account of as soon as she lay back, and took a deep slow breath, her head went under which lead to more dramatic coughing.

Vas patted the girl's back while she coughed out the ocean from her nose. “Good, you didn’t panic, but just in case you don’t remember … you can’t breathe underwater so make sure to hold your breath if you so go under.” He jibbed. “Try again, this time i'll help support you so you get an idea how it’s supposed to feel kay?”

Serena nodded, clearing the last of the awful tasting water from her lungs. “I know I can’t breathe under water, it’s just I went under right as I as breathin’ in. Don’t let me go, okay?”

“I gotcha I gotcha.” Vas chuckled his hand on the small of her back helping her stay afloat as she leaned back. “See and you notice when you breath in and out you're going to sink and rise a bit.” He explained. “Put your arms a little out, the more of you spread how there more the water can help you float, stiffen your legs a hair, bending your knees like that will tip you in the water, think like … “Vas said, mulling over what to associate with how she should spread herself in the water. “... like making snow angels on NK! Be a bit that!” He suggested.

“Got it!” Serena chirped happily, even though they didn’t make snow angels on New Kasmir on account of Crew Chief didn’t much like the cold. He did like bein’ indoors and arm though. With his help, she managed to float. Water lapped her ears but at least this time she didn’t sink or get a face full of salt water. “You promised!” She reminded him as she relaxed on the bobbing water.

“Did I?” Vas said in a playful tone and chuckled, though his hand was still on the small of her back.

“Yes!” She said. “And you wouldn’t lie on account of you don’t want lied to.”

“Well I supposed I did then.” Vas laughed she could still feel his hand on her back but was reduced to the light touch of just a couple of fingers.

“How many planets have this much water?” Serena asked, opening her eyes as she became more comfortable with the idea of floating and not sinking to the bottom like a stone.

“Life can’t really exist without water. So if it’s terraformed … all of them. I think there is one that's mostly desert but they use a chunk of it as a penal colony. There’s lots of mining and the locals that DO live there don’t trade in money, they trade in water. That's really the only exception I can think of.” Vas said thoughtfully. “You're doing great, you want me to move my hand away more, see if you can float totally on your own?”

“No, on account of I don’t want to drown,” She said, matter of fact. “On account of second to bein’ spaced, that would be one of the worst ways, on account of nothin’ scarier than you can’t breathe. I was just wonderin’. Gil seems to know how to swim. Wasn’t sure if a lot of planets were like this one. I know New Melbourne had a lotta water, only we didn’t get to see much of it.”

“That's cuz we spent most of our time in port towns but lots of planets got oceans, lakes and rivers. On Greenleaf a lot of the water is underground, just cuz you can’t see it don’t mean it ain’t there.” Vas reminded. “I'm right here you ain’t going to drown, side you floating just like a baby sea otter I doubt the single finger holding you up will mark the difference between floating and not floating.”

“All right, fine,” She replied warily. “But I wanna float like a regular sea otter. I’ll try it on my own.”

“Baby sea otters float better and are cuter.” Vas retorted, withdrawing his hand. “See ain't nothin to it, floatin like pigtailed cork. All you needed was a helpful nudge.”
“And it was much less painful than learnin’ how to take a fall,” the teen giggled. “Thanks, Crew chief.”

“Thank me after lessons tonight, the sand is nice and soft to practice on so I can really toss you around.” Vas said with a mischievous smile. “How about you move your arms a bit and start paddling around some?” He suggested.

“Like a duck?” Serena asked, instantly dreading later, as something told her the sand would not be- as the crew chief said - nice or soft to practice.

“You can try, duck is a bit more advanced I think, you know gliding all smoothly in the water while kicking like hell under.” Vas mused. “Give it shot.”

Serena lifted her head to eye some swimmers, before deciding that swimming like a duck probably wasn’t a good idea. Most of them had their faces in the water and that didn’t much seem like a good idea to the teen either, but a few were on their back, either kicking their feet or paddling their arms or a combination of both. Serena noticed she splashed a WHOLE lot more than they did when she tried.

“You’re a noisy duck …” The punk teased as he shielded his face from the spray of her vigorous kicking. “... you don't have to kick so hard you know. Less is more. Also you’ll move a hell of alot faster not on your back, just saying.”

“I’ll drown a hell of a lot faster with my face in the water,” Serena told him, *pragmatically* as she stood back up. “Okay, so… don’t kick so hard. Paddle your arms like when you make me do windmills” - she refrained from pointing out how much she disliked windmills, because that might have been interpreted as a complaint - planking in the water was an even faster way to drown. “And put my face in the water -- on purpose, right?”

The way Serena explained made a comical image in his head and he couldn’t help but laugh. “No, no, no … it’s not nearly that simple and you just learned to not sink so don’t go jumping in the deep end yet! It looks like they're windmilling their arms but they're not … it’s a stroke, to cut into the water and help move along …” Vas showed how the arm moved. “... See? Back, over, in and to the side. That's just the arm movement … But small steps kid.“ Vas said floating around Serena. “How about you try keeping your feet off the ground first?”

“Like floating? I can float like a baby otter,” she bragged.

“Yea but this time you have to move around. Think of it like a game! You're an Otter and I'm … a shark! You have to keep moving or the shark, that's me, will eat you … ‘cept I won’t actually eat you that would be weird so maybe I’ll just throw you instead?” He asked with a wolfish grin.

“I already don’t like this game,” Serena decided with a giggle, but took off with a splash to not get thrown.

“Remember to breathe out your nose in the water ...” Vas said loudly before sinking below the water and moved along the sandy sea floor. Serena wasn’t that hard to follow along, even under the water he could hear her splashing around.

Serena laughed hard enough to inhale and exhale at the same time, resulting in a snorting sound that made the teen laugh even harder as she tried to dodge and avoid the onslaught of Vas, who did look very shark-like what with the fin of hair on top his head. Twice she got a face full of water but remembered to breathe through her nose so she didn’t end up choking. She forgot about drowning and how horrible that would be, and even forgot about any issues there might have been on the Lunar Veil in lieu of having fun. “I can see why non-spacers like the beach so much,” she told the Crew Chief after the third time she was caught and tossed.

“Oh sure! Sand castles, Sun, waves, parasailing, snorkeling, surfing.” Vas listed tossing Serena again. “I still like being a spacer more though.”

Serena looked around and breathed in the salty air, nodding her head. “Me too, on account of when you’re a spacer, you get to see places like this, and like New Kasmir, which is the opposite of this. And you get to see jungles, and a tree where your friends are, and you can walk, in space, which is kinda almost like swimming.” She awkwardly glided through the water for emphasis.

“There is a lot of ‘Verse to see.” He agreed. “Look at you paddling around.” Vas said, noting how she was now, sure it was goofy looking, swimming-ish forward! “We should get some shaved ice later! You know, celebrate you learning not play a convincing rock in the water.”

“That would be the best!” She exclaimed with an unintentional splash. “We had hot chocolate on New Kasmir, and then shaved ice on Peloram! Oh, but I have to get back ‘fore Mr. Cortez leaves on account of I wanna say good bye and he said he had something he wanted me to have.”

Vas’s mood instantly soured at the word ‘Cortez’. “I keep telling ya not to get so attached to passengers … that way they are called passengers … they’re passing through.” He thought himself very clever for coming up with that.

“I’m not attached…” Serena said. “And I know he’s not contracted, but we’re supposed to be nice to the passer-throughs, aren’t we? That’s what the Captain always said.” She shook her head side to side giggling as her wet pigtails reminded her of a floppy dog’s ears. She wondered how Rebel was doing on that old ship with Yeva and his new boys.

“Being nice is not what you're doing.” He pointed out. “You’re attached and no one on the LV is contracted pigtails. We're employees, like normal folk, we can leave whenever we want, which is better because we choose to stay.” Vas reminded before suddenly tossing the girl again. “Whoops did we stop playing? I didn’t think we had stopped playing?”

Serena screeched and dove away from the Crew Chief. He had a point, once Mr. Cortez left, he was no longer technically a passenger, and she wasn’t obliged to be nice to him -- even if he’d been nice to her and wasn’t obliged. Still, darting away from the Crew Chief with the promise of Shave Ice and maybe even real, non protein paste food made it too easy to lose track of the time.

“I mean we could go after but shaved ice tastes better in the sun.” Vas said with a sagely nod.

“It’s okay, Crew Chief, like you said,” she giggled, leaping out of the way. “We shouldn’t get attached to passengers on account of they’re passing through, and this way no one has to be sad when they’re leavin’. And he gave me enough what with all the cookies and candy and coins. I’d rather have shaved ice when it tastes better, in the sun, like you said.”

“As you say kid.” Vas said, trying to stay neutral on the matter. He wouldn’t say it but he was glad Cortez was finally leaving. It meant Vas could finally relax a little now in his own home. Cortez was nothing but trouble and he didn’t like how he had endeared himself to the crew. “Not like you’ll ever see him again, plus we got plenty of passengers to deal with on the regular anyway.”

“Uh-huh,” Serena said quickly before darting under the water and out of the way.

“Uh-huh.” He mimincked going underwater and swam past Serena. He tugged her leg playfully before popping up for air.

Serena laughed, laying back on her back and kicking water towards the crew chief. Her fingers were starting to get wrinkly, like when she’d been working too long with a bucket. “Do you think after we get shave ice we might get to go swimmin’ again, or at least ‘fore we leave?”

“We’re here for nearly a week, so long we get our work done there's time enough to swim around everyday if you want. So how about we get that shaved ice before we turn into sea prunes? Warm up and we can do whatever you want after.” Vas smiled, splashing Serena back.

“Race you to the shore!” She called over her shoulder, giving herself a good head start. “Last one back has to make Ms. Meadows her tea!”

"Oh hell no!" Vas said torpedoing forward now the proper incentive had been giving. "You are NOT sticking me with that windbag!" He declared fully bent on tossing Serena back to buy him time as soon as he got into striking distance. He was so not the honorable type!
“Cheater!” She called, as the crew chief tossed her back towards the water. She picked herself up, laughing and chased after him deciding she was definitely banking the whole day.