CASE [GL]

Even though my stomach somewhat regretted having had the food fest the day before, and from what I heard, that also counted for Lauren, we still decided to hold food fest part two today, as to get rid of the rest of the food that we couldn’t eat up yesterday. It had been an incredibly calm day at the bridge yet again, so we could use a bit of excitement. 

“Hey, Luna, what about watching a Pimsey movie or two today?” Lauren asked as she opened the door to our cabin. “I could use a bit of entertainment right about now.” 

“Oh! That sounds fun!” I replied enthusiastically. 

“Nice.” Lauren smiled. “I’ll warm up the plates of food while you pick a movie for us to begin with, how does that sound?” 

“I’m on it!” 

“Oh, maybe don’t choose any that have anything to do with food, we already got that covered.” 

“Okay, luckily that doesn’t exclude too many films.” I giggled and walked over to the table, from where I could access the television screen’s UI. I quickly found the very extensive list of Pimsey movies in a category specifically dedicated to it. “What about this one?” I asked and looked back over my shoulder, Lauren had just put a plate in the microwave. 

“Hmm?” Lauren looked back. “What’s it about?” 

“It’s a movie about a little robot trying to clean up the entire planet because the humans left it full of garbage.” 

“Oh, that must be a pretty old movie.” 

“Uh…” I looked at the date the movie was produced. “About two hundred years, yes.” 

“I figured.” Lauren nodded. 

“It’s a fun movie, though.” 

“Could be true, you know what they say: ‘old but gold.’” 

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone say that before.”  

“Oh well, never mind then.” Lauren chuckled, took out the plate back out of the microwave and put another one back in. 

“So, is this movie okay for you?” 

“Yeah, sure. If you say it’s a good movie, I believe you.” Lauren gave me a wink and quickly followed that up by switching out the plates once more. These microwaves definitely are useful. 

 

With the plates all warmed up, Lauren and I shoved the table over to the bed so we could cozy ourselves up a little. 

“Just try not to spill anything on the bed.” 

“My name is not Zu, Lauren.” I chuckled. 

“I’m just saying, accidents happen.” Lauren laughed and took a plate for herself, putting some food on top of it. “I’m ready for the movie when you are.” 

“Okay.” I smiled and got myself a plate as well, after which I started the movie and huddled close to my girlfriend as the opening scene began. 

We snacked throughout the entire movie and didn’t speak too much to each other, appart from a couple of short comments about something funny or sad that happened during the film. There was this one moment where the little robot didn’t look like it would make it out of the volcano eruption in time where Lauren was clearly on the tip of her seat. That’s the nice thing about movies like this, it can pull you in regardless of the age, even if it looks to be made for kids. 

When the movie ended with a typical Pimsey happy ending, Lauren leant back and stretched her arms and back and then dropped her back flat on the mattress. “Ah, that was a very good movie. I liked that one a lot.” 

“I’m happy you enjoyed it.” I smiled. “But could I ask something?” 

“Sure.” 

“How did you know how old the movie was?” 

“I take it you don’t know much about 21st century Earthern issues?” 

“It is not my forté. I have read a bit about it, but not that much.” 

Lauren nodded. “Well, the 21st century was mainly dominated by climate change issues and how we deal with plastic pollution and things like that. It’s easy to see that the movie was made with that in mind.” 

“Oh. Now that you mention it… there were a lot of wars fought because of that, weren’t there?” 

“Of course, resource scarcity, climate refugees, conflicts about ideas on how to solve things, most funded by industries who didn’t want to change because they would lose incredibly big amounts of money. But luckily in the end we did manage to somewhat solve the issue. We still need to keep an eye on it, but right now it’s manageable. Sadly, that didn’t really end conflicts, though.” 

I was very thankful for this short history lesson. “It’s all very interesting, though.” 

“I can imagine. I would like to watch some of your media as well if I got the opportunity to do so. It’s always interesting to see what other cultures see as things that are important enough to be portrayed, or even more so, to see things that aren’t portrayed.” 

“Hmm, maybe one day.” I replied. I couldn’t access any of the media from back home, as it was seen to be too risky for practically no practical help during our mission. The only thing I really had to my disposal were the reports from some systems and regions of space. 

“Are those pieces of media very utilitarian too?” Lauren asked. 

“Yes, I definitely should add a warning that it’s mainly educational media.” I admitted. “I think the media that’s most alike to your television is what you would call infotainment documentaries, but really way more of a focus on the information rather than the entertainment.” 

“Huh, now I’m even more curious to what it looks like.” Lauren chuckled and sat back up again. “Anyhow, would you like to watch another movie? We still have plenty of time left in the evening.” 

“Okay.” I nodded. “But I don’t think I will be eating any more.” 

“Yeah… same goes for me.” Lauren laughed, but with a slightly painful expression. 

Instead of browsing through the movies myself, I shoved over the UI to Lauren. “Maybe you should pick one that looks interesting to you now.” 

“Alright, but don’t blame me if I pick a bad one, okay?”

“I’ll stop you before you do.” I giggled. 

 

 Lauren actually ended up picking a Pimsey movie I had not seen before, which was quite the accomplishment as I’d seen most of them. Although in the end it became clear why I hadn’t. As it apparently was a movie that had mistakenly been placed in the Pimsey movie category, but wasn’t a Pimsey movie at all. It was a traditionally drawn movie about a princess fleeing a country that was in complete and utter turmoil because of a revolution and to add insult to injury she got amnesia on top of that because of hitting her head. Luckily, in the end, everything ended well. 

“That was a good movie too.” Lauren nodded. “Although…” 

“Although what?” I asked. 

“I’d like some of these movies to have been more… gay.” Lauren started laughing. “But oh well, that’s just because of the timeframe these movies were made in, I suppose.” 

“The more modern ones have quite a few lgbt characters in them.” I told her. 

“Ah, that’s good, maybe we should watch those next… but maybe not for today.” Lauren got off the bed and started cleaning up. “It’s time we head to bed, don’t you think so, too?” 

“Mhmm.” I nodded in agreement. “That would be wise. We wouldn’t want to hit our head and forget about each other.” 

“I don’t think I could ever forget you.” Lauren chuckled. “I think that’s impossible.” 

“You think so?” 

“I am 100% certain of it!” Lauren replied confidently. “I wouldn’t mind forgetting about Grayson, though.” 

I rolled my eyes. “Do you still have a vendetta with him?” 

“Most of it is just a joke by now. You need to look at it as a tradition.” 

“Very well.” We both chuckled and I then helped Lauren clean up. 

 

Over the next week and a half, Lauren and I watched a Pimsey movie every single night, exploring some of their more LGBT focused movies as well. Eva even joined in for a couple of nights as she’d shown interest in watching a couple of movies too. We were having a pretty good time, which was contrasted by the fact that the officers had gotten increasingly restless because of our slow but steady approach to Earth. To get rid of some of the tension, Lauren had actually executed a couple of the pizza party initiatives that were originally meant as a diversion for the crew. 

 But nonetheless, the tension at some times was almost unbearable.

At least… It was until one night when Lauren and I were preparing to start yet another Pimsey movie, when Ellie suddenly called out to us from the speakers of our holosticks. 

“Commander, requesting access to connect to your cabin’s mainframe.”

Lauren quickly got up from her chair. “Request authorized.” She replied. 

“Commander.” Ellie’s voice rang out from the room’s intercoms. “We may have detected a suitable planet to commence Plan Outbreak.” 

Lauren looked at me with a surprised yet hopeful look on her face. She then looked back up to the ceiling. “Alright, we’ll be heading to the bridge momentarily.” 

Ellie left the room’s mainframe again, and Lauren looked at me once more while grabbing her uniform jacket. “Let’s hope this is a good one.” 

“I hope so too…” I replied and quickly put my uniform back on.