And here's Chapter 4! It's a day or so later than it should have come out, because emergency cinema-going is a thing. But it has arrived, and that's the important thing...right?
As always, enjoy the chapter. All comments and other thoughts appreciated!
=======
A Sea of Stars
Book 1: The Stars, Awake
Chapter 4: Storm Front
"Well," I sighed out loud to no one in particular, "isn't this bothersome."
Not that anyone in particular could hear me, of course. A lone man in a long food queue was but one well of sighs amongst so many others in Cantina Four, which was in its turn only one amongst half dozen others that dotted the decks of Gradivus Base. All of them bloated, swaying and groaning even as this one did under burdens that any four walls would struggle to contain.
Rushing foot-falls. The jostling of bodies in between crowded benches and tables. Orders of food being hollered over the din. And then there were the conversations, heated, focused, laidback, meandering between all and sundry
range yesterday was such a pain in the ass
that Janoor better remember he owes me that twelve cred
But most centered around the now, as exemplified by the holodeck in the center of the canteen.
There, Sancaid Prime turned on its silent axis, a peaceful eye amid a raging storm that reached out to encroach upon the blackness of empty space. Even in miniature, the violet miasma surrounding the planet was
man that thing is somefuck ugly
is it growing yeah it's growing
it's written right there you blind or something
remember that monster from The Spawning
, y'know, the amorphous spider thing with like a million eyes or some sh
it is much less red than we were told to expect
they're doing pretty good, our girls-
I frowned.
Suzy, you're doing it again.
At at once, the voices were hushed. In their place was a strange void, an almost embarrassed silence, one that Suzy broke with the mental -and perhaps not merely so- equivalent of biting her lip.
Sorry. I'm just-
Still feeling bummed out?
I immediately regretted cutting in. It was always better to let a person finish.
Uh huh.
A neutral enough response. Neutral was good. Or at least not catastrophic, and thus not in need of damage control just yet. On second thought, perhaps I'd do some anyway.
Now I'll admit, I can't say 'I know how you feel' in good faith.
Because telepathy is cheating?
A bit, I confessed.
Also, I don't have...uh, you know.
Silence.
You don't remember, Suzy?
Hmmm. No, I don't.
Damn. And I thought I'd dodged a bullet there. O little shipboard log of the TNS
Suzukaze, how you disappoint me.
I'm an only child, remember?
...Oh. Man, just call me the one-man awkwardness upgrade service.
I mean, I just wish the holodeck wasn't in the middle of the cantina. Now I couldn't forget about it if I wanted to.
Which was probably the point, I noted.
Yeah. But- ugh, you know!
Sorry, know what again?
Ah, I could see Suzy folding her arms in frustration now.
Now you're
being dense on purpose.
Guilty. Still, a therapist once told me that it helps to spell out your trauma.
You went to a therapist - and listened?
Such humility comes out of left field, that is true, I reflected. Oh look, the queue was moving again. Feet, shuffle forward if you please.
But the point stands.
Ugh. I know. I know. It just...feels like shit.
And so you're binging.
I'm not bingeing!
I struggled not to roll my eyes as I took my place near the very front of the queue. Second in line in fact. That was fast.
"What might I get you today?"
The AI vendor asked the man in front of me.
'He' was poetry in a billion pixels as he stood behind a virtual storefront, from the twinkling obsidian eyes set into a weathered face to the Rorschachian oil stains on his girthy apron, and had a voice to match the size, booming forth from speakers that lined the fabricator machine.
"A bowl of Thai-style wanton noodles, please," came the reply.
I smirked.
Hear that, Suzy? One big-ass bowl of wanton noodles.
To most people, that's a meal. Not just one thing topping off a list of 'dishes someone else orders for you' which in your case includes -and correct me if I'm wrong- fish slice porridge, a supersize Queles Burger, miso steak and yoghurt on breaded asparagus, pork sausage rosti...and whole broiled Mbarian wildgame with ixberry stew.
Now tell me, in what world does this list not constitute a binge?
The response was a muffled mental 'urk!' followed by silence.
Go on, I pressed, trying not to sound too amused.
I'm waiting.
I-it's called an emergency resupply session! Suzy protested.
Which, if nothing else, she continued more quietly,
I have legitimate reasons for having.
I glanced at the holodeck, to a distant debris field right smack in the path of the incoming Ginaz Storm.
So you do, girl. So you do.
There, five blue arrows lay in wait. DD(SG)s twenty through twenty-two
-Amatsukaze, Yuudachi, and
Fubuki- , CA(SG)-7
Agano, and the
Hanuman-class Stealth Battlespace Observer
Iramabel. Advance guards. Scouts.
Bait
.
Despite the name, Stealth Battlespace Observers weren't invisible. Optical stealth, even having left infancy for a century or so, meant nothing inside a Ginaz Storm, and certainly not with sensor arrays fully deployed in order to provide our fleet with the information we needed on Abyssal positions.
The moment the violet tide reached them, they would be as a nimbus of light in utter darkness. Or more accurately, as bloodied meat in a shark pool. The Abyssals would surely pounce. And when they did, so would we. As plans went this one was simple, and as sound as it was bold.
My eyes lingered over the
Yuudachi, on the tiny formation's far left. Ah, Commander Reiner, for all your skill, I must confess to be a little disappointed. In your boundless wisdom, could you not have spared my partner a little consideration? Or, you know, at least not dangle her sister by blood just out of reach and drive her stir crazy in the process-
"-purchase anything?"
"Sorry?"
The vendor's thin smile told me in no uncertain terms that were the skillet in his meaty arm real I would be feeling it right this instant. Message duly received, good sir.
"I asked if you would like to purchase anything."
"Yes." Alright. Quick. The order, what was it again? "Yes. Sorry. I was distracted."
"Good. I thought we'd lost you there."
"How long?"
"About half a minute."
"Then I'll pay back in kind," I replied. "Two plates each of
char siew wanton noodles and another two of sauteed vegetables on the side."
"Why, consider me mollified, sir. You will, however, find your fellow patrons less charitable."
Well, what do you know. Inchoate miasmas of roiling impatience could spontaneously materialize enough for visual detection after all. Perhaps someday, in a situation very much like this one, you too could be stopped by a mass of sentient indignance and be given a red card for time-wasting.
"Well if they require a levy they're free to name it. What's your price?"
"I find eight credits reasonable."
"It isn't extortion, no," I agreed, signing off on the bill with a flick of my OmniPad.
"Thank you for your patronage!"
And the fabricator hummed to life. The whirling symphony of the kitchen was a familiar one: the whirring and chopping, the slicing and stirring a soothing music to my ears.
Excuse me, milady, I called,
but I was occupied otherwise.
I gathered.
Oh, 'I gathered', was it? How dismissive.
But there was no time for navel-gazing on the reason for Suzy's curtness; a ding put paid to such thoughts as the fabricator's 'mouth' slid open, bearing my orders froth from its metal innards on a tray.
"Your extras, sir," the vendor announced. "Enjoy your meal."
"So I will."
Tray in hand, I wheeled around and made to leave the queue, the aroma of the meal my shield against the fiery darts my former queue-mates rained down upon me with narrowed eyes and muffled grumbling, with such a fury that should reduce a lesser man to groveling, penitent, shamefaced- sorry, where was I?
Ah yes, the food. Stalled conversation with Suzy, and thoughts thereof. But first, the food. Fried pork lard, budu and oyster sauce; a match made in heaven. Why, it was so heavenly that a man might not begrudge the resultant shortening of his life expectancy; for what was life if un-enjoyed, and what was enjoyment if unshared?
Especially when there were so many to share it with, I thought as our table came into sight.
Company was a constant friend of the moody soul, and here it took the form of our newest friends, Corporals Ginger Meggs, Flavius Dweebius, and two others they'd brought along. Yes, 'friends', not 'acquaintances.' An arguably premature upgrade, but a favor done was a favor won, and sitting down to help cheer my partner up in my absence was no small favor.
As on the
Catha previously, so here: it was Margaret 'Marge' Angelos who spotted me first.
"Hey!" She called, waving.
Suzy raised her eyebrows in greeting. Which was as much as a person could do with both hands and mouth full with a supersize Queles burger, so I gave that a passing grade.
Kaiser Nerdhelm on the other hand merely stopped his constant jabbering at my partner, but otherwise seemed as determined now as back then to impress upon me the meaning of sonder. Thank you, Seedy Gonzalez; this whole 'befriending' business had been going so well too.
It was the two unfamiliar faces, however, that held my attention.
"...so this here lad's the partner, then, Margie?"
The fellow who spoke first cut a curious figure, his otherwise shorn and noticeably less tanned appearance from his tablemates broken both by a rich brown goatee, plus a chakram-shaped tattoo that served as a fashionable disguise for the extensive cyber augments that crowded his left temple.
He also hadn't recognized me immediately, which was comforting. It was nice to have people buy you drinks, but drinking just to rid oneself of the cringe an insufferable nickname brought ruined all the fun.
Marge nodded.
"That he is, Chief. Mr-, huh, no. It's Lieutenant now isn't it? Lieutenant Deschantes, in the flesh."
Man, that once-over burned, and it wasn't just the red LED glow in the center of the man's left eye.
"What the hell," the older man muttered at last. "Doesn't look like the briefing profile at all. Whatever did they do to your face, lad?"
"It's my gigawatt smile," I supplied. Half-heartedly perhaps, but navigating the circumference of the table in this crowd without making obese dying elephants look graceful by comparison was hard when you were as encumbered as I. "Couldn't wear it during the photo-taking. They said it ruined the flash."
The other stranger pushed back some short black dreadlocks and brought a large palm to rest on on one tan cheek, while her other hand twirled a fork between two fingers.
"They let you wear that lip too, sir?"
"No camera can catch that, I'm afraid," I said as I sat down.
Suzy took another crunching, squelching bite of her burger.
"I apologize in advance for him."
Hush, girl. I have just returned from running a gauntlet of stall queues to get you food, plus sides. Plus your voices in my head on intermittent annoyance duty. The Association of Unnecessary Apologies just called, they want to rescind your provisional membership.
"Eh, no need," The woman laughed up to her twinkling brown eyes as I sat down. "Reckon I like you, sir."
"I'd prefer 'Ethel'. I don't wear ranks I don't earn."
"Honesty!"
I know, right? What the heck was a 'Simulated Lieutenant', anyway?
"Your loss, Edith." my partner noted.
Knuckles cracked in response.
"Think I can take one of those."
The woman's outstretched hand was calloused and corded with muscle up to where the ultramarine navy sleeves covered it up, with a grip to match: a crushing experience in every sense of the term.
"Petty Officer First Class, Edith Butler. 2IC of Scout Team Forza, 322nd OrbCav." At this, she jerked a thumb at the tattooed man, bright golden eyes twinkling. "I'm next in line if the old guy over there kicks it. Feel free to tell me when he does."
"Nope, hasn't happened yet; and hell if these old bones know why," the elder scout retorted, taking on a roguish twist of lip and cheek that was unexpected but not unwelcome. "Now, these idiots call me Boss, Chief, Geezer and other assorted claptrap. But not you, boy. You shall call me Master Chief Orfan Uruz. Petty Officer optional, that's too long."
Well, quiver my woodstocks.
Gradivus' crew complement was way too huge for a man to easily go through, to say nothing of the entire Task Force's, but I'd actually heard of this guy before - what were the odds? He was a seasoned soldier, with service preceding the Abyssal War, if recall served. Had a pretty famous stint in…
In...well, actually, I couldn't remember for the life of me - on to the customary handshake then.
Orfan's grip was light and supple, something I'd have expected from a man half his size, and while it was warm as any flesh it lacked a certain
there-ness to it that modern military augments tended to leave intact. Pre-fourth gen cybernetics? Odd. He could be anywhere between a century or two old by the looks of it, but I was pretty sure his service didn't predate the Nanoculture Insurance Act. That had been what, 2285?
Nevermind. Not a question for first encounters.
"Always pleased to learn from experience," I said.
"Good, good." Orfan laughed. "I'll give you one free then: Never buy food for someone whose idea of a meal is a localized extinction event."
Too late for that, bub. Girl's been building a monument to our anemic appetites for the last fifteen minutes now, and it didn't look like she was stopping any time soon. But just as I thought that, Suzy did indeed stop, if only to give Orfan the stink eye.
"Hey, it's called Underway Resupply," she protested.
"Call it what you like, girlie sunshine," the Chief replied with an easy grin, "but these old bones wager we'll need a whole other ship or three someday soon, just t'keep you lasses topped off."
Leckie snorted.
"Bet you all a hundred that some big time bean counter is already planning that."
"Not a bet I'll take," Edith said between vicious spear-fuls of pudding. "Fully functional ships for a fraction of the standard maintenance cost? It's any data monkey's wet dream come to life- uh, no offense, Onjouji."
"We're cool."
A somewhat comfortable hush fell over the table. Edith continued rationing out what little was left of her dessert. Leckie flicked at his arm-mounted OmniPad idly. Marge watched Suzy eat with an expression caught between reverence and horror, while Orfan seemed content to just stand -or rather, sit- aloof for now.
Which narrowed my list of conversation partners down quite a bit. Just as well.
"Y'know, Chief-"
The klaxon was short and shrill, slicing through the din as if it were but a void.
[H-hour imminent. All hands prepare for jump,] the voice of Mraliz Vorkros boomed over the sound system.
[Say again, H-hour imminent. All hands prepare for jump.]
It was like a starter gun had gone off. Food vanished down gullets as spoons became shovels and forks industrial plows. Officers and senior non-coms leaped onto tables, running feet answering their crisply barked orders. The directionless fog of human awareness in Cantina Four was now a wall of steel, ringing cold and bright in unison with every sure yet nimble step.
It was a human exodus of the highest order: well organized, high spirited, and immensely disappointing.
Sure, expecting anyone to share my heartbeat of
holy shit it's happening it's actually happening was to assume a nadir of empathy too radiant for mortal realms. But misery loves company, and this whole 'rah-rah oom-pah-pah, we march, we fight for Sweet Terra' business was awful in that regard at best.
"Well damn that's a lot of 'em…"
But there we go. The Club Sans Enthousiasme could not stay empty forever, and how fitting that His Eminence, Johann Leckie -Le Vicomte de Braggalotte himself!- should be our first patron.
Make that two patrons: Marge was silent, her expression darkening as she too looked at the sphere, and at the sea of red that crept ever closer to the point of no return: a single line that marked where any further transmissions from our scouts would break stealth.
That was our fellow newbies covered. What abou-
Edith Butler was a blur of flying dreadlocks, swinging around the table to where her two subordinates sat at the edge of their seats. Goddamn military-grade augs. No one had any right being that fast while that large. Or that strong: I could feel the backslaps she was giving out with mine own scapulae.
And again. Ow, just ow
.
"Chin up, greenhorns." Edith declared. "See now, playtime wouldn't be worth jack-shit if it came free!"
"Girl speaks truth!" Orfan barked heartily, slapping the table. "That's the way of the world: eat, drink and merry, because tomorrow you fight to do it all over again!"
A few shouts of 'hear hear!' could be heard in response.
Then he turned back to me, the intensity in his gaze only just offset by a wry grin.
"Not going to talk to your little miss?"
Ah. Yes, of course. The elephant in the room.
If everyone else had given the hologlobe at least a fourth look on account of that siren wail, Suzy must have had her eyes bolted to it by capital ship grade grav-tractors. She was also utterly quiet, so much so that those around her, even those passing by, could not but fall silent.
"Sure you've got to time to be pissing about here?"
"We're third rotation. The backup backup plan." Orfan jerked a thumb behind him to where a small minority of staff remained seated, though their plates too were either conspicuously empty or well on the way to being so. "If we have to be out there today, things have gone to double-triple fuck with plenty to spare."
"Also," he added pointedly, "I asked first."
I shrugged. Your concession, your loss.
"I'm considering how not to mess it up."
"So you do need help."
Cool those translight jets, Old, Bold and Sardonically Winking. I said I was taking time out to ponder future actions. A most wise course of action if I should say so myself, especially when the chattier half of this psionic bridge is presently doing her best Tower of Babel impression - a fews miles high, eloquent as stone, and locked in futile rebellion against reality.
But if he was up for some brainstorming, I wouldn't refuse him.
"Her older sister's with the scouting party," I confessed.
"The
Yuudachi, I take it?" Now eyes, be brave. Do not make me look like a moron- oh how you betray me; our foe is grinning, smirking death's own rictus'd visage at our bewilderment. "What, weren't you listening to me earlier? We have briefings. So do you: the same ones, I'd wager. They tell us things, and very occasionally those things happen to be important."
Fair point.
"Right. So, yeah. A sister. Right in the line of fire. It's, well..."
Dammit, now I was the one plying the face of the holodeck for the words I needed. But alas, there was nothing there, neither mene, tekel nor upharsin. Only a crimson swarm to stand in for the finger of the divine, for our reckoning with-
-the collision reverberates through the silence of space, consuming everything in a blazing sea of white-
"Kid?"
Ugh. Come on, Ethel. There is a season for everything: a time to be silent, and a time to speak, and a time to engage in excessive navel-gazing vis-a-vis your most recent memories of the enemy. That is to say, not right now.
"It's a difficult idea for me to relate to," I finished.
Orfan hummed thoughtfully.
"No family or friends out there on the fronts?" That was rather straight to the point. He seemed to realize it too, though his shrug was less backpedal, more teasing mollification. "Just asking, kiddo. People tend to after a while."
"You could say that I've gotten used to it."
I let that hang for a few moments.
"Well then," the Master Chief huffed, folding his arms. "I won't pry. But if you aren't gonna make a move, mind if this old man gives it a swing?"
Oh good sir, you are truly too kind.
Now. To tell him or not to tell him…
Eh, whatever. If a man chanped so at the bit to charge, who was I to dismay him? And it was always nice to learn more about where we stood on the information-divvying ladder.
"Your funeral," I replied, gesturing towards where Suzy sat.
No more words were wasted. Striding over to where my partner sat in silence, Orfan pulled a chair over from a recently vacated table, and sat down right next to her.
"So, girl," the Master Chief began, "something on your mind?"
No reaction. Nay, nary a twitch.
This was a problem. Albeit in the sense that only thing worse than a 'forward the light brigade' approach to potential emotional minefields was the conspicuous lack of response from said minefield, but still a problem. Perhaps this was the right moment for a quick psionic mic check. A little blunt-edged as solutions went, but sometimes old fashioned was best.
I reached forward slowly, steadily towards the wall that Suzy had thrown up about herself, tracing each raw throbbing singularity in the coherent yet utterly alien whole. It was...different. And very impressive: nothing she'd done before came anywhere close.
Psionic Race (Innate), boys and girls. Yet our practice sessions -and what limited Poseidon records existed on the matter- yielded no decisive differences between them and us psions-by-induction. Only the patience, the persistence to find the chinks that must surely exist in any armor, and use that as our point of
intrusion
I froze, just barely managing to not 'jump' out of my own skin at that. One interminable second passed. Two.
Then Suzy's eyes snapped back into focus.
"Uh." She began with a flair that would have honored Demosthenes, red-faced and stuttering as she faced her grinning audience of one, realization dawning. "Um-"
She plunged low into a full bow.
"Sorry, Chief! I-"
"Relax, sunshine, we're cool-"
"-I'm really, really sorry!"
I watched them from the corner of my eye, all the while fighting the urge to add throttling whoever had written the section of the primer on Psionic Resonance to my bucket list of things to do before this war got me killed. Or to laugh out loud at Orfan's futile attempts to stop the litany of apologies my partner was pouring out upon him.
'Inexact science', my arse. But it was worth it.
"Alright, alright," the Master Chief said at last, looking every bit the beleaguered survivor of Space Storm Sumanai, "So zoning out isn't a pattern with you usually, I get that."
"Y-yeah." Suzy stammered. "It's just that..."
"Mmhmm?"
Several emotions whirled past my partner's features as she calmed herself down, before settling into a frown.
"...he told you."
"What?"
"Ethel told you." An accusatory glance flicked my way. "About Yuu-n- the
Yuudachi."
Orfan raised both eyebrows.
"Oh, no, not at all." He chuckled softly, reaching for his breast pocket. "In fact, you'd be surprised-"
"Don't!" Suzy hissed, only to recoil at her own vehemence. "Don't," she murmured, her voice shrinking. "You'll get in trouble. We're not cleared for this, not yet."
Orfan did not remove his hand.
"And you're alright with that?"
Well, that was only the most blatant bait I'd seen in a year. But from the grinding of teeth I could hear from between Suzy's limits, it was working.
"Of course not!" She snapped. "She's my sister. We should be fighting together, not separated by a light-year of space and a buttload of waiting - her out on the frontline, me in some hidey hole! All these years, and now...I haven't even met her yet, let alone spoken a word to her. I don't even know what she looks like! And I never might! Do you even know-"
"Yeah, I do."
Were this me, Suzy's face would have scrunched up, and the 'no you don't' would have been swift in coming. But the conviction in Orfan Uruz's voice was a different beast before which she froze, face seizing in wide-eyed surprise at the sudden flame in his countenance.
So it was that the Master Chief retrieved the contents of his breast pocket unmolested, and next thing I knew a small object was spinning towards my partner's fumbling hands.
It was a photo. Not a holo-plate or some mini OmniPad like the one I used; an honest to goodness color print, sealed in plastic and looking only a tad worse for wear for it.
"My old Scout Team from Callidus Academy, Batch of Summer 2515, during my senior instructor term." He jerked a thumb over to where Edith had pulled Marge and Leckie aside. "Tell you what, these bumbling bozos hadn't even been born then."
"Get over that statistic," Edith called back. "It was only two weeks!"
Ignoring her, Orfan tapped the figure furthest left in the photo. "That's your's truly of course," he said, tapping his tattooed temple, "well, before I got these here fancy digs."
Then finger became fingers, one for each of the two person next in line.
"Yag Shal and Nora Troie, nee Meyer-Ohle."
The latter was a just under five foot three Terran, even counting the tilt from having a hand on one hip and the stray strands of rose-gold that poked up above a blazing curtain of hair. The former was arms akimbo and all frowns, as if an armored bipedal reptilian twice his companion's size with a scar over one fiery eye needed anything more in the intimidation department.
The tiniest grin played across Suzy's face, her first clean break from visible anxiety since we'd arrived at the cantina.
"They look happy together."
"Aye," Orfan agreed. "Love can bloom n'all. Even between the biggest pair of idiots I've ever seen. Still together too, the crazy bastards."
The Master Chief's eyes grew distant as he came to the last person in the picture. It reminded me a lot of Dad, on the rare days where we could meet and talk: minus the arguments, and the drinks needed to keep us civil.
"And that's my third grand-niece Rajelle," he said, idly tracing the side of the picture that framed the slightly taller, raven-haired young woman at the rightmost. "Funny thing, coincidences. Bounce her on your knee, read her her first stories, hold her wee hands in the kiddie pool...teach her how to hold a gun."
"How is she?"
"Presumed missing." The words were two shades away from inaudible. "FTL accident near Point Orestes."
Orfan leaned down, his eyes iron as they met Suzy.
"Point is, you ain't alone. Everyone's got someone. Living, dead. We fight for some. Others fight for us," he said, putting a hand on the shipgirl's shoulder. "But either way, we don't do jack for them by sitting around and feeling sorry for ourselves. We help them by doing what we can, by doing our job - and a soldier's job is pretty simple, no?"
Suzy bit her lip.
"That's the problem."
"What is?"
Her gaze flickered to mine, a motion that Orfan mirrored. But though the questions in their eyes were different, they could be answered the same way - with a simple shrug. I helped you make your bed, Chief, now you lie in it.
"Well, we-"
"-were given clear orders to stay put."
I did not need to turn to know who was behind us. Not all voices were created equal, and Commander Amanda Reiner's smoky black, on the rocks, no sugar blend was certainly on the memorable end of the spectrum, the sounds of salutes snapping into place a weak signifier of her presence by comparison.
"As you all were," she said with a wave.
Suzy frowned.
"Permi-"
"Your desire to charge headlong into danger is noted, Lieutenant," Amanda continued undeterred. "As is your intention to appeal that she be allowed to do it, Master Chief."
Speaking of inequality, someone needed to phone Hotline Heaven and check if this ability to interrupt conversations at fortuitous moments could be acquired, because heck if I didn't want me some of that.
Suzy worked her jaw, looking like she might protest the overly assessment, but Orfan held out a restraining hand in front of her.
"Thank you, ma'am."
"However, consider this: Lieutenants Onjouji and Deschantes have logged a mere seventy-six hours in augmented reality simulation courses in the past week, and all of fifteen minutes in actual combat." Amanda paused, affixing Orfan with slightly narrowed eyes. "You would throw the Marshal of the Navy herself out of Callidus if she suggested fielding recruits with twice that amount of training."
"Without an ounce of regret, ma'am."
"But you would bargain with me for the opposite purpose."
Man, this guy had balls: all the casually baleful presence Graf Zeppelin's avatar could exert, and it was just making his grin wider by the second.
"No, ma'am, I wouldn't."
"Oh?"
"The way I understand it, ma'am," Orfan replied, "this whole 'coming back from the dead thing' has been treated as a resumption of duty. Shipgirl training scores so far tell me that they think so, anyway, whatever changes we've made to naval warfare notwithstanding." He swept a hand out across the tables. "To sum the long story, less than a handful of people in this room have more operational experience than the seven years Suzy has, and I'm confident she'll show that out there today."
The Master Chief shrugged, a roguish light in his eyes.
"If given the chance, that is."
On any other person, the mottle of emotions that Amanda Reiner's face hurried to rid itself of would have registered as mere surprise. But annoyance, actual anger, then a wry smile? On everyone's favorite stoic? Someone speed-dial the Character Breakage Helpdesk.
Also, what do you know: the smile actually stayed on.
"You pick your fights well, Master Chief," Amanda admitted.
"You will too, ma'am, when you get as old as I am."
"And as for Lieutenant Deschantes?"
"Pah, girl can carry his candy ass," Orfan scoffed.
Amanda turned to Suzy.
"Can you, Onjouji?"
My partner blinked, as if shocked that the spotlight was now on her.
Well. Ten dollars on her bowing sometime soon. It was the Japanese thing to do, in any case. No, I never imagined I would ever have cause to think that. Life goals, Ethel, in three, two, one-
-there we go.
"I'll do my best, ma'am!"
Why, that was the most spirited I'd seen her all day. Fitting then, that the display should in turn render Amanda the most torn between faint smile and frown as I'd seen her yet.
"Then you should be pleased to know that against all better judgement-" '
my better judgement', her face all but said, "-your previous orders have been countermanded. DD(SG)-23
Suzukaze will report to Battle Line Alpha by nineteen-thirty shipboard time, left echelon of fleet carrier
Graf Zeppelin and ready to jump."
Edith exchanged a look with Orfan before raising her hand, lips splitting into a grin that one could only call predatory.
"Regulation says shipgirls need a skeleton crew onboard, ma'am."
"And thank you for volunteering, Petty Officer Butler," Amanda replied. "322nd OrbCav's Scout Company will be stationed aboard your ship as a boarding/landing element. Master of Scouts Orfan Uruz will serve as your interim executive officer for the duration of this battle, pending review."
Suzy turned to Marge and Leckie, her eyes exultant. The two of them barely managed to grimace back. Guess 'understanding' superiors were a bitch. I mean, I could relate.
"You look like you have something to say," Amanda said, turning her gaze onto me.
"Well, I gotta admit, this is quite the exception we're making, ma'am."
"You will find such things par for course here - unfortunately." The shipgirl's default frown returned in full force, no doubt at the memory of a certain someone. "But worry not: from what I hear you are in able and experienced hands..."
"...As am I, in truth," she continued softly.
Then she turned on her heel.
"I look forward to our performance, Lieutenant Deschantes."
=== To be continued in Chapter 5: Take the Plunge ===