Into the Wind

[Vakhtang_Dalsazashvili 0]

3 days later. . .

 

 

---

 

 

 

Vakhtang awaited Eva's arrival at the cafe. After the rock climbing debacle, as well as a host of other ill-conceived ideas as chosen by him, the two of them had agreed that their next holosuite excursion would be Eva's choice.

 

Tang and Eva had been going on these holosuite dates every two or three days, along with dinners and/or lunches almost everyday. Given their situation, being essentially stranded on Maturin for a bare minimum of a month, spending time with her had made the time seem to go much quicker. It had also, for the most part, taken his mind off of the other Vakhtang. He hadn't quite worked up the courage to read full report on his other self, but he had at least was becoming more accepting of it.

 

He saw Eva approaching and waved her over. Wondering just what exactly she had in store for them today.

 

Eva smiled as she spotted Tang. She greeted him with a quick kiss on the cheek. " Ready?" she asked before putting her hand in his.

 

Vakhtang began walking towards the holosuite. "Of course I am" he told her. "What have you decided to do today?"

 

"Already told you before you tried to make us both paraplegic with the rock climbing." she said grinning. " Risa!" she added smiling. " But I thought of you too, I won't make you sit on a beach doing nothing I promise. Come on!" she said pulling him towards the Holosuite.

 

Tang raised his eyebrows. "And what exactly does not doing nothing entail?"

 

"Something fun" she said, not really explaining.

 

Entering the holosuite, Eva pulled down her sunglasses over her eyes before speaking up." Computer, Begin Program." As she spoke, the holowalls shimmered and an island setting appeared before them.

 

She pointed to the water. "Ta Da! Wind surfing! You're not the only one with crazy ideas around here, Dorogoi".

 

Tang smiled. "I've always wanted to try wind surfing!" he said. "I always used to see people doing it back home, but I never got around to trying it" he paused, looking down at her, remembering the debacle they ran into while rock climbing. "You did read up on how we're supposed to do this, right?"

 

She smiled sheepishly " I sure did, and at least if we fall it, will be in the water." She walked toward the shore before putting down her large tote under one of the umbrellas. She took out a two towels out the bag , handing Tang one. "In case you do want to just sit around as well" she added.

 

"Maybe after we windsurf." he told her. Walking out towards the water, he paused and turned around. "Are you coming?"

 

Eva quickly removed the tunic she was wearing over her bathing suit and ran toward the engineer. "I'm here! Ok.. so.. we need those!" she said pointing to the wind surfing equipment.

 

Tang shifted direction, taking her by the hand and walking with her over to the board and rigs that awaited them. He surveyed the equipment for a second, grabbing on of the boards and placing it in the water from the dock on which it sat. He eyed the foot straps before sliding his feet in and tightening them. He looked of at Eva and waited for her to do the same.

 

"You've done this before!!" she said pouting before copying what he had done." I guess we will need some kind of wind though." she said realizing there was none. "Computer, increase wind speed to 5 knots" She waited til the breeze started to blow her curls around. " Well, that's better." she smiled.

 

"I've actually never done this before, but I've seen enough people do it" he told her. He let himself start floating away from the dock. "I don't know how to steer though." he admitted. "Did you read up on that part, lapochka?"

 

"Of course I did." she answered. " You must lean backwards to steer into the wind and forward if you're trying to steer away, it seemed pretty easy from what the manual said. But then again, I'm sure rock climbing seemed that way as well."

 

Tang began pulling the rig out of the water, as he grabbed a hold it, he felt the wind start pulling him further and away from the dock. He leaned back, then forward, trying to get a handle on the steering. "It seems pretty easy." he said after a few seconds, looking back at the dock towards Eva, motioning for her to come out off the dock.

 

Tang made it look easy. Eva picked up the other rig and waited for the wind to pull her away from the dock. She started moving before loosing balance about a meter from shore falling in the water. She quickly resurfaced. "Very easy indeed" she said, swimming to get her rig back.

 

Tang circled around back towards her. "You just gotta keep your balance, that's all." he chided her lightly. As he moved, he began to realize that he was on a direct course for Eva, panicking, leaned back to try and steer away from her, only to lean himself back too far, he felt one of his feet slip out of the foot straps, and landed back first into the water. He resurfaced after a few seconds and grinned sheepishly. "Like that."

 

"I see" she said, grinning back. Still in the water, holding the rig and the board, she looked at Tang." You know, I think we should try bird watching" she said laughing while trying to get her feet back into the straps.

 

Tang pulled himself back up on the board, slipping his feet back into the straps. "With our luck, we'll end up getting attacked by some over-sized hawk" he said. Pulling the rig up out of the water again, he began sailing away from Eva. "So if we're going to fail, we might as well fail doing something spectacular, don't you think?"

 

"I would be back under that umbrella if I didn't agree" she answered, pulling herself back on the board and leaning backward, letting the wind carry her. "This is actually fun!" she said sounding surprised. She smiled to herself as she managed to keep her balance leaning back and forth with the wind.

 

The two of them glided about the water, seeming to get the hang of it. After a few minutes, Vakhtang spoke up. "What do you say we add some waves into the water?" he asked her, turning himself to face her.

 

"Feeling adventurous" she said smiling before calling upon the computer. "Computer, Increase waves by 30%". She held on tight, as the computer obliged the request. "Here we go" she said smiling at Tang, before sailing a little farther away.

 

Tang allowed his board to slide into one of the breakers, leaning back into the wind as the wave's momentum carried him towards the shore. He steered out of the wave and looked back at Eva, a subtle grin creeping across his face. "Do you mind if I tried something?" he said, an idea popping into his head.

 

She looked at him suspiciously, noticing the grin. "Go for it!" she said bravely.

 

His grin grew a little wider as he sailed out deeper into the water. "Computer, increase wind speed to 20 knots and increase wave height to 6 feet." he turned to Eva, grinning even wider now. "Hold on, lapochka." he told her as he felt is board start to plane under him.

 

"Did you say 20 knots?" she asked, her question being answered by a gust of wind, sending her flying off balance straight into the water.

 

Tang did not notice Eva's loss of balance. Instead, his attention was focused on the wave forming in front of him. Leaning backward he brought his board around in a full circle, gaining speed as he did.

 

Holding on to the board, having given up on retrieving the rig in the waves forming, Eva looked around trying to locate Vakhtang. She grinned, seeing him plane over the water, clearly impressed.

 

Tang reached the wave as it began to crest, it looked a lot taller than he thought it would be. He leaned forward, trying to angle his board into the wave, only to realize that he was carrying too much speed. His board careened to the side, but not before it passed over the top of the cresting wave, sending him airborne. He let out a yelp of fear, letting go of the rig as his feet slid out of the straps. He came crashing down face first into the water.

 

Coming up after a few seconds, he tried to catch his breath, as he had had the wind knocked of him upon his crash landing. "Computer, stop all waves and decrease wind to 5 knots." he said, panting. As the water settled, he spied Eva about 20 meters away from him. "I guess that wasn't such a good idea." he admitted, paddling his way, board in hand, towards her.

 

"You were pretty impressive there for a moment" she said, trying to get the wet strands of hair away from her eyes. "Beach?" she asked, looking toward the shore.

 

Tang nodded, "That sounds good." he told her, finally catching his breath. He swam up to her, and wrapped his arms around her under the water. Giving her a kiss on the lips. "Hey, I wanted to ask you something." he said to her, his cheeks beginning to flush a bit.

 

"Yes?" she answered.

 

Tang the inner part of his lip, as he always did when he was nervous. "I was wondering if. . .after dinner tonight. . .if. . .well. . ." he paused for a second in a vain attempt to stop stuttering. "I was. . .Do you. . .Would you like to, um, stay in my quarters tonight?" he asked her, silently cursing himself for sounding like a schoolboy asking a girl out to prom.

 

"Oh.." she said, wrapping her arms around his neck. " I think I could do that." she answered gently smiling at him. " Did anyone ever told you that you are adorable when you blush?" she asked grinning.

 

The comment made Tang blush even more. "Not really, no." he admitted, looking away for a second before looking back at her. "Shall we spend some time on the beach first?"

 

"If you don't mind. These spots need some sun, even if it's a holosun. Come on..." she said, starting to swim back toward the beach.