METEOROLOGY

The pilot looks bored to death, slumped in her chair, reading porn, hardcore stuff from Denmark. The copilot is asleep.
I'm numb. The whining of the twin motors, the endless grey sky and grey water of the endless Southern Ocean. I glance at Lieutenant Steiner, the only other passenger. With a look of shame, she turns away, avoids my eye. I see her blush as she pretends to watch the ocean.
Mark I Dragon jockeys boast they can offload in twelve seconds, everything on pallets, learned during the siege of Scoresbysund in eastern Greenland. The jockeys are off their game today, twenty-two seconds on the ground. Lt Steiner and I stare at each other as the Dragon lifts off.
"We'll leave the fuel drums here. Rest of the gear, let's stow in the station." Let's? The Lt means to help? Surprise yes. Two hours later, our gear and supplies are all inside. True unpacking will take days.
"Make a pot of coffee please." Please? Am I hearing right? An officer? Once the coffee is ready, she smiles, "awkward situation here. I outrank you, yet you are my jailer. So-oo let's just keep it first name basis. Call me Elke. What's yours?"
"Tasma."
"Look Tasma, I'm really sorry to drag you in. It was the stockade or this weather station for me, as I'm sure you heard through the grapevine. So, volunteer or you were chosen?"
I don't reply, look at her as if she were the Mad Hatter. Dumb question of the year.
"I ah see. So what exactly did Major Federov say?"
"She had her eye on me, potential to advance."
Elke laughs with a brittle tone, "fat lot of good that does you. You're a draftee, soon be out, same as me. How old are you?"
"Eighteen"
"What did you do back home before being drafted?"
"Cigarette vendor."
"Going back when your hitch is up?"
"Nope."
"Why not?"
"Marrieds only, no place for a single."
"Tell me Tasma, what levels did you get on the diagnostics?"
"Grade seven math, five reading, three writing."
She stares out the window a long minute, turns, faces me, "look Tasma, two options here. We can spend the next year staring at each other till we both go insane from boredom. Or we can keep busy. I'd be glad to teach you."