Curiosity

“Look at this!”  Mercutio squealed as he darted away from Cian.

Cian threw his head back and suppressed the need to shout.  The two had been taking a leisurely walk through the cosmos up until now.  Cian had grown bored hopping from planet to planet and he managed to convince his lover to just stroll through space.  Of course it couldn’t last long.  Not much of any one activity (save a few) managed to entertain Mercutio indefinitely.

Turning around Cian found a new reason to sigh and shake his head.  Mercutio was floating about a large satellite.  The silver and white constructed was oddly shaped, almost like a cone with a series of antennas poking out of it at regular intervals.  Little white and red lights blinked on it, and a foreign writing that soon translated to Peregrination MARK IV was pained in red on one of the sides.  It was nothing exceptionally amazing, despite how Mercutio flew about it, toying with the antennas and then inspecting the bright lights.  Cian had seen millions upon trillions of satellites during his lifetime.  They were scattered about the cosmos, littering the abyss with bright colors and lights as they floated on their journeys.

“I wonder where this one is from,” Mercutio murmured as he found a panel on the current underside of the satellite.

“What does it matter?”  Cian complained, slowly moving closer to currently benevolent piece of metal.

“Curiosity!”  Mercutio explained, patting at the panel but not finding any switch for it.  “Oh confound these things,” the Eternal murmured.

Apparently the Peregrination was indignant on remaining intact for its travels.  Cian smirked as he watched Mercutio dart about the satellite, looking for some secret panel he could pull off.

“Why are you so intent upon getting inside this thing?”  Cian had to ask, running his fingers over the freezing cold metal.

Satelittes were always cold things because space was an incredibly cold place.  The temperature never seemed to bother Cian though.  Maybe it had something to do with their specie.  In fact, the more Cian thought of it, the more he realized the temperature of a place never bothered him.  In seconds he could adjust to any amount of freezing cold or blistering heat, intense dry air or insanely humid air that felt as though he were walking through soup.

“Because I want to give whoever made this a present,” Mercutio’s words cut off Cian’s current train of thought.

Blinking, Cian raised an eyebrow to his lover.  “Why in the stars would you do that?”

“Curiosity!”  His lover repeated like an oversized and underfeathered parrot.

Sighing and shaking his head Cian decided that he likely would never understand some of the more twisted and scattered parts of his lover’s brain.  And, really, that was something Cian was rather grateful for.  Those parts of Mercutio were confusing but…Cian had to admit, inwardly, to himself, in a very bare whisper, that those parts of Mercutio were also incredibly endearing.  He was such a happy man when he chose to be…

“Awww, thank you love,” Mercutio appeared beside Cian and kissed his cheek.

Right on cue Cian hissed and pushed Cian back.

“I told you to stop scanning my thoughts!”

“This time I wasn’t!”

“Liar!”

“Am not!  I didn’t use any telepathy that time,” Mercutio insisted.

Frowning, Cian scanned his lover for what abilities he was using.  Cian scoffed and rolled his violet eyes.

“Empathy is the same as telepathy!”

“Is not!  It is a completely different ability.  Though they can, on occasion, yield similar results,” Mercutio grinned in that irritatingly handsome boyish way.

Cian pushed his hand into Meructio’s face and forced his lover away, even if he was smirking in response.  Sometimes Mercutio’s roundabout logic had to make Cian smile.  Mercutio chuckled and Cian pointed an accusing finger at his lover.

“No empathy and no telepathy on me,” Cian instructed.

“Awww, you’re so cruel to me,” Mercutio complained, the power from him fading as he floated upside down beside Cian.

“You still love me,” Cian found himself saying.

Mercutio grinned widely as Cian cupped a hand over his mouth.  Damn everything, he was picking up Mercutio’s habits now!  That man was such, such…!

“Stop smiling already!”  Cian demanded.  “Weren’t you going to find a way to open this up and stick something inside?”

Against his orders, Cian’s lover continued to smile.  Shouting angrily Cian stomped (which had no affect in space other than for theatrical dramatics) away from Mercutio and up to the Peregrination MARK IV.  Unaware of his ire, the satellite simply floated along, possibly taking a thousand and one pictures of Mercutio and Cian which the Eternal was sure would confuse and possibly anger anyone checking on it’s camera.  Waving a hand he wiped the ten most recent pictures from the satellite.

“How did you do that?”  Mercutio asked, now floating above Cian’s right shoulder.

“It’s something I picked up,” Cian murmured, running his hand over the freezing metal.

Focusing on the Peregrination Cian was able to see through the metal and into the inner workings of the satellite.  Following the electrical pulses across the cone he found the first panel Mercutio had toyed with.

“It doesn’t open,” the shorthaired Eternal claimed.

That wasn’t entirely true.  Right now the panel would not open, no proper command had been given to it.  Running his hand next to it a holopad appeared under Cian’s fingertips.  Beside him he could hear Mercutio ooh in admiration.  Staring at the holopad Cian searched the memory banks of the satellite until it revealed the proper keystroke sequence.  A second later the panel made a POP sound and slid up into the machine, revealing a network of wires, lights, and microchips inside.

“Just something you picked up?”  Mercutio teased as he slid closer to the Peregrination and peered inside.

“Unlike you I tended to favor planets that had invented more than the wheel and basic sewage systems,” Cian accused.

“I’ve been to modern planets too, I just find them less fun.”

Cian decided not to contest that.  He and Mercutio had argued enough for the moment.

“With your little electronic eyes ability can you find a small pocket I can stick something foreign into?”  Mercutio requested.

“Why?”

Mercutio sighed and looked back at Cian, smiling in that gentle way that always fit and yet didn’t fit his face.

“Because I want to keep whatever people sent this guessing.  What’s more fun than finding something that is harmless and yet doesn’t belong in your spacecraft?”  The Eternal pat the satellite.  “I’ve collected far too many little trinkets from all the places I’ve been.  There’s no reason not to share them when the proper opportunity presents itself.”

Cian hesitated as he wrapped his head around Mercutio’s unique brand of thought patterns.

“So…you find satellites, break into them, put foreign things inside them, and then set them off again?”

“You made that sound terrible,” frowned Mercutio.

Sighing, Cian rubbed his eyes.  “I’m sorry.  It just seems…silly.”

“Maybe to you and I.  We’re already—well, I guess it’s me more than you who’s curious—but we’re technically curious enough.  Also, nothing is out of reach for either of us.  But for explorers of the universe that aren’t us things like this can send them into a new golden age!  …Or at least prompt more funding for an unmanned satellite mission,” Mercutio smiled in an almost wistful way.

Cian found himself smiling gently as he listened to Mercutio.  Sometimes the man made some damn good sense, and really, underneath all that carefully constructed eccentricity, Mercutio was a soft and goodhearted man.

“Give me what you want to gift the Peregrination with,” Cian requested quietly.

Smiling widely now Mercutio snapped his fingers.  A harddrive from another world with completely different circuitry and casing appeared in Cian’s palm.  The harddrive had long been deactivated, and searching it Cian could find only a few caches of information and programming left on it.  Apparently this had been part of a water purification system.  Taking the harddrive, Cian pushed a few wires out of the way and slid the harddrive onto a platform inside the Peregrination that had no function.  Recoiling his arm he shut the panel.

An arm curled around his waist and Cian chuckled as Mercutio pulled him into his side.

“Thank you,” Mercutio purred, kissing the underside of Cian’s jaw.

“You’re welcome.”

As they walked away from the satellite Mercutio suddenly remembered something and looked back to Cian.

“Did you delete all the pictures of us from the Peregrination?”

Cian smiled thinly at his lover.  Maybe there were one or two images left on the satellite.  For…curiosity’s sake.