“Tomato soup.”

A long pause.

“Insufficient.” It said in that annoying neutral voice.

“Tomato soup in a bowl.”   She paused for half a second and added. “Hot.”

Another pause, this time longer. “Insufficient.”

“Grrrrrr.”   Jr. Lieutenant Pilar Perez said loud enough for anyone to hear and cursed.  Her grandmother would be so upset, but then again, the old hag was never happy about anything.  Pilar smiled, the old lady was long dead and Pilar was about to have a really nice bowl of soup.  Maybe. If she could get this damn machine to work.

Marcie piped up. “Remember sir, it is a dumb machine, not like the ones hooked up to the positronic brain on your ship.”

“Don’t call me Sir, Marcie we are the same rank.”  She sighed and looked over the machine, it could convert matter to energy and then back to another form of matter, but it was a ‘dumb machine’.   Pilar was about to slam her fist into the control panel when she noticed the active visual menu above the dispersion slot.  She spoke again slowly reading the words off the screen.  “Hot tomato soup, American version, high protein content with carrots.”  A short pause.  “Large bowl.”

The machine hummed and a large bowl of tomato soup materialized in the dispersion area.  Pilar smiled; she was getting the hang of this thing.

Pilar looked around the eating area for somewhere to sit.  She saw Marcie had  left her behind and had already found a spot  with a group and grimaced when she called her over.   One of the people in the group was the little Thai guy, he  was annoying.

“Pilar come sit with us, there is plenty of room.”   The short dark haired Thai Jr. Lieutenant said.

Pilar turned while forcing a smile on her face.  She had sat with these people all morning in class with their endless questions  and then talking about the questions.  They should have just sat and  learned now she was going to have to sit with them again.

Pilar sat down on the same side as Dao but on the opposite side of Marcie, so she was as far out of the group as possible. Maybe that would reduce the amount of talking to the other Lieutenant to a minimum.   He had been the most annoying one in class this morning, over analyzing things and asking all kinds of ‘what if’ questions.

Pilar leaned over to her friend and said in a low bare whisper.  “I hate you, Marcie.”  She thought she caught a hint of a smile on Marcie’s typically inscrutable face but it was gone very quickly.   Pilar adjusted herself at the table and  nodded a greeting to the other two lieutenants at the table and started to dig into her soup.

There were nods of acknowledgment to her presence from around the table but no one really commented.  The eating continued for a few minutes in mostly silence except for a few random comments about the schedule for the rest of the day.  Their training was for all the gunship commanders from the Axe.  All of her classmates were Jr. Lieutenants the same as Pilar and Marcie and this was their introduction operations of their support ship The Axe.   This was also the first time in three months Pilar and the rest had been away from their crews since the beginning of training.

She was just finishing up her soup when Dao started jabbering away again.  “I am still amazed by this food, it is fantastic, just a couple of words and I can have whatever I want to eat.”  He chewed a bit more. “And as much as I want.”

“This will not always be the case.” Pilar declared bluntly while using the last of her bread to wipe down her soup bowl for the last bit of soup.

“What do you mean?”  Dao said taking a bite of his second sandwich.

Pilar finished chewing her bread before continuing.  “We are going to be in space, sometimes there will not be enough raw materials to feed into the replicator to produce whatever you want, whenever you want, so enjoy the feast now, because a shortages are a real possibility.”   She said trying to sound wise even though she had never been in space and was only eighteen years old.

Dao shook his head. “Nonsense, all we have to do is dip into a nebula and gather any space dust or any asteroid belt and deconstruct some rocks and” he punctuated it with his sandwich waving in the air,” ‘wa la’ we have all the raw materials we need for the replicator.

Pilar shook her head.  “You are an idiot, if you think it is that simple.”

Marcie spoke rapidly.  “I think what she means is you are mistaken.”

Pilar glared at her friend.  Marcie just shook her head at her imploringly, speaking volumes behind her glasses.

The small man replied angrily.  “Who are you calling an idiot, I am a gunship commander, same as you, the Outfitters would not have made me one if I couldn’t do the job.”

Pilar snorted.  “The Outfitters may be almost all powerful, but they make mistakes, you are probably one of them.”

“You are talking out ignorance.” Jr. Lieutenant Dao stated loftily.

“And you have such a deep wealth of knowledge about space, travel.”  Pilar said with as much sarcasm as she could muster.  “Weren’t you just a fisherman before the Outfitters picked you.” Pilar spat back.

“Well at least I am not the worst pilot on The Axe.”

Pilar saw red.  No one was going to talk down to her,  they had tried that at the Missionary school, and she had not taken it then and she was not going to take it here either. All because she was just not picking up the three-dimensional thinking of a pilot as fast as everyone else and she was barely passing the tests.

“Well at least my father didn’t become a eunuch after seeing what a disappointment his son was.”  The people at the table a deep breath in shock.  Dao had told everyone about his father reaction when he found his son kissing a man.  It had been early after the Awakening and there had been a lot of drinking going on around a campfire, it had killed the buzz around the campfire really quick that night and everyone remembered the painful night.

Dao sputtered in shock at Pilar’s statement.

Marcie turned quickly to Pilar and shook her head open mouthed.

Pilar was about to say something to Marcie when the bell rang out over the speakers announcing a return to class.

Dao grabbed his tray quickly and practically ran away from the table.  Pilar though about it for a second, what was he going to do about it?  She smirked at the man; he was a few centimeters shorter that her, with small shoulders and lacking the thick muscles Pilar had worked hard to build up these last three months.  Her muscles and fighting skills had grown considerably since the Awakening here on Sanctuary.  Marcie got up without word and followed the others at the table, leaving Pilar by herself.  Pilar tried to catch up with Marcie and along the way she decided she was not going to be sorry.   When Pilar sat down at their shared desk Marcie said nothing purposefully ignoring her.  The class began and she did not have much time to think about what happened as they were getting trained on operational gunship tactics such as how to work in pairs or in six ship formations this afternoon.

It was part of the ‘crawl, walk, and run’ training philosophy of training. Pilar saw the wisdom in developing individual skills, then team skills, and finally it would be fleet skills; she just hoped the people in charge were smart enough to use her and her gunship correctly.

Like most things learning came easy, due to the learning thrust into the brains before the Awakening here on Sanctuary.  Massive amounts of knowledge, but it had to be called up into the forebrain.  Like this stuff, she had knowledge in her head about tactics, these classes were just prompts for those bubbles of education came to the surface.  Yes, Pilar knew how to pilot a ship, what buttons to push, what levers to pull, but the feeling for flying was something she was having trouble with.

The training schedule made sense, most everyone here had been working with their crews on individual tactics sharpening their skill sets, getting up to Fleet Standards in firearms, piloting, flight operations, gunnery, ship identification, and repair and maintenance.

Granted the ships were brand new, and well designed, they did not just break, unless there were abused or mistreated.  Like that fool pilot who had thrown his gunship into reverse thrust during a full three G dive.  Luckily, it was just him and his copilot, anyone else not fully strapped in would have been crushed by the crash.  As it was the two had to spend about three days off and on in the auto-doc getting rebuilt and the co-pilot was still walking with a limp.

She realized she had been wool gathering and turned her attention back to the instructor, a Senior Lieutenant named Zuri, very black skinned woman, who was the S-3 for her base ship The Axe.  “Now than when covering the withdrawal of a fighter group from an attack what is the first weapon that should be used on vastly superior force approaching?”

Dao, Pilar’s verbal punching bag raised his hand and the S-3 nodded towards him. “Missiles, the strongest punch possible.”

The S-3 shook her head.  “No, your first weapons response should be guns, both your main blasters and turret blasters.”  Pilar saw Dao slouch down a bit in his chair and smiled at his failure.

“Junior Lieutenant Pilar Perez, why is this?”  Sr. Lieutenant Zuri asked glaring at her.

Pilar was a bit embarrassed she had been noticed smiling at someone else’s misfortune now she was on the hot seat.  She stood up to answer as was the custom in this class.  “Well, you stated the enemy force was approaching,” a pause “that means they have their sensors facing us possibly scanners as well, since missiles are more likely to be intercepted, especially with sensors and scanners facing us.”  She took another breath. “Blasters are faster and we can put out a lot of them and they can’t be shot down, blasters would be the logical choice for a numerically superior force.”

The S-3 nodded.  “Correct, plus the fact that missiles are not an inexhaustible resource.”

“Can’t we just make more, with our replicator technology?”  A voice in the back called out.  Everyone turned to see who had spoken.  It was another staff officer.  Pilar could not remember his name or job.

“No and yes.  No, we do not have an infinite amount of missiles, and yes, we can make more, but this will be covered more in depth in your next class on logistics.” The S-3 stated dryly trying to draw the attention back to the front of the lecture area.

“And who gets to decide how many more we make?”  The staff officer asked.

The S-3 rolled her eyes and gave a dramatic sigh. “Everyone in case you had forgotten, because he is so easily forgotten, the person interrupting my lecture is Junior Lieutenant Charles Remington our S-4, who is in charge of Logistics and Supplies for The Axe.”   The Jr. Lieutenant continued to walk forward.  Pilar saw he was a gringo, very tall, very blonde, very thin man with the most vibrant blue eyes she had ever seen and her heart skipped a beat when he smiled.  Pilar shook her head, the man was a tall skinny drink of nothing, all bones, and angles, so why was he so good looking.

“That is right folks, I get to make the enviable decisions between making missiles or mead, between beans or bullets, pâté  or power couplers.”  He said this last thing while looking directly at Pilar.    He smiled as he said it and she felt something new and different deep down.

“Can I help you Remy or are you interrupting my class for no reason?”

Remy smiled.  “Ah yes, sorry, my class was supposed to be this evening, but Captain Jericho came back early and wants to usurp my time, so I will be teaching tomorrow.”

The S-3 shook her head.   “May I continue my lesson now?”

“Feel free.”  Remy said and sat down in an empty chair at the end of the first row.

The S-3 rolled her eyes again, she looked back at her comm panel.  “Now then another factor to take into account in covering a force when they are making a tactical withdrawal is……”

Pilar tried to concentrate on the rest of the lesson but she kept turning to look at the S-4 who was following the lecture on his comm panel, he would occasionally look up and raise his hand with a question that was on topic, just like he was one of the class, but he mostly kept his head down, nodding along when something was explained.

Stealing covert looks at him revealed he was not all skin and bones, his forearms were incredibly muscular and his biceps which occasionally were shown through his short sleeve uniform shirt were well defined.   Marcie lightly tapped on the table the two of them shared.

Pilar glanced over at her Marcie whose eyes who traveled to where the S-4 was.  Marcie then mouthed the words. “You like him.”

Pilar shook her head dismissively but felt her face get a little hot.

“Okay class, you have an assignment to finish during your meal break, you have an hour and half instead of the regular forty-five.  I will be giving you and a random partner a tactical problem, from ambushes to planned attack on a fixed position, you will present your plan to the class this evening, use your comm panels to plan your problem and put it in ‘presentation’ mode to explain your thought process to everyone else.  Dismissed.”

Pilar flicked on the blinking assignment icon and saw that she had gotten scenario three, attacking  a tactically stronger enemy’ then she saw her partner’s name.  She swore and said ‘Dao’ out loud.  She looked over towards the diminutive man and saw he was two seconds behind her in reading the assignment. He frowned as he looked up a half second later and then they locked eyes, he mirrored the frown that was on her face.

She lingered as Marcie gathered up her comm panel and cup.  “Who you with?”  Pilar asked.

“Oh, Junior Lieutenant Robin the tall Swede gal.”  Marcie saw the person she mentioned and waved to her. The tall blonde girl waved back from across the room.  “How about you?”

“Dao.”  Pilar responded.

Marcie whistled.  “You should apologize, what you said was mean.”

Pilar frowned. “Him first.” She shot back.

Marcie sighed. “You were both wrong, but you were cruel.”

Pilar shrugged.  “Life is cruel.”

Marcie shook her head. “That is true, but that does not mean you have to be.”  Marcie stated as she walked away without giving Pilar a chance to respond.

Pilar found herself  walking right behind Dao into the dining room.  They did not exchange any words but each gathered up a tray and  quietly spoke into the replicator.  Pilar noted the man chose the largest portion possible of a fish and rice meal.  Pilar went with a medium portion of stew with something called sourdough bread.   They looked around the large room, seeing that everyone else was collaborating with their partners over food.  The two of them sat and ate in silence, both of them buried in their comm panels looking over the assignment parameters.  When Pilar finished her stew as she always did she sopped up the remainder with her bread, she was surprised how good the ‘sourdough’ had been.  She made a mental note to try it again, she pushed her tray to the side and tapped on the table to gain Dao’s attention.

His eyes looked up from the comm panel.  “Yes.”  He said coldly.

Pilar stared back. “We should probably discuss this.”  She said pointing to her own comm panel.

He gave an exaggerated sigh.  “Yes, we should.”

Surprisingly they had both came to nearly the same plan, independent of each other as they laid out a battle plan for two gunships to do a leapfrog attack on the single larger enemy ship, using their speed and maneuverability to snipe and harass the larger more heavily armed ship from numerous points until they enticed the larger target into an area where both gunships could attack simultaneously.

“Well, that is a good a plan as we can come up with now.”  Dao said pointing to the clock on the wall which showed the recall bell was about the ring for the evening session.

Pilar grunted finishing up the final simulated plans on the comm panel.

“You don’t like people much do you?”

Pilar kept her eyes on her comm panel but answered.  “We almost go through this thing without getting personal.”  She shook her head.  “If an apology is what you want then fine.”   She took a deep breath.  “I am sorry for what I said earlier, it was rude of me.”  She stated flatly without looking up.  Hoping to see if her apology was good enough for Dao.

Dao looked at her with a puzzled look on his face. “Thank you for your apology, I accept it and I forgive you and I am sorry for what I said.”  He said with a neutral expression on his face. “But you did not answer my question.”

Pilar looked at the clock hoping the bell would ring, but sadly it still had two minutes to go.

“I like my crew, I like my friend Marcie, everyone else I go on a case-by-case basis,” she took a breath “people mostly suck.”

Dao looked at her confused at first, then a look came over his face that Pilar hated.  She had seen in too often growing up, in the faces of too many people.  Pity.  She wanted to smack the man; she fingered the brass knuckles she kept on her belt next to her blaster.  She had taken then off her head gunner one night when they had a ‘disagreement’ and she had loved their simplicity, so she had kept them close ever since.

The bell rang, the two of them stared at each other the complete length of the electronically reproduced sound of the bell.  Pilar with annoyance and building in anger, Dao changed from pity to  shock seeing the anger coming from the other officer.

The presentation went well.  Sitting in front and center of the classroom was Senior Captain Jericho, commander of The Axe, the gunship base ship for the 2^nd Squadron and Pilar’s and everyone else’s boss and commanding officer.

One by one the pairs came to the front of the room and presented their scenarios to the class and their commander.   Most were put together well, giving a good tactical response to the mission in front of them.  Comments and questions were basic, all for clarity on certain points.   Captain Jericho simply nodded and made an occasional note on his own comm panel.  Pilar’s and Dao’s presentation went off without a hitch and no questions were asked; a few comments made about ensuring that the attacks not be predictable, including attack points on the ship changing, or at least repeating the same target once to ensure a pattern could not be anticipated.

The ten presentations were concise and did not drag so it looked like they were going to end on time.

Pilar groaned inwardly when Captain Jericho came up to the podium and he pulled out his comm panel.  The man was a decent enough commander, so far.  But he was dull as dishwater when it came to public speaking but luckily, he seemed to know that about himself and kept his talking to a minimum.   The Senior Captain gave a summary of the last few days of training telling them that he was pleased with their progress.

Pilar thought he was done and was going to tell them they could go back to their ships tomorrow after the last bit of training, but then he continued.

“Tomorrow night being Saturday night and since we typically have little to no training on Sunday I thought we might have a bit of a party tomorrow.”

There was a bit of murmuring around the classroom.

Captain Jericho continued. “Dress up if you want to,  no uniforms necessary.  Weapons can be left on your bunks during the party, it will be on the big hill to the east of here,”  he pointed in the direction of the hill that was behind the lecture hall. “If you could all replicate a bit of food that was your favorite on Earth that would be good.  There might be a little bit of booze for those that imbibe and if we can get some of our resident musicians to play, maybe a bit of dancing or singing.”  At ding from his comm panel and the Captain looked at it distracted then he looked up. “It says our residents musicians are calling themselves the Axe Grinders.”  He paused to take a breath. “Then on Sunday you can either return to your ships or wander around the planet, I understand there is a river about two clicks past the bonfire hilltop that is suitable for swimming.”  The man said seeming to run out of things so he looked up at his staff who had all gathered in the back of the classroom, the gunship commanders all turned to where he was looking and no one had anything to say.   “Okay gang obstacle course tomorrow for time I want to ensure that everyone is getting faster and stronger, so give it your best.”

There were moans around the room on the announcement of the obstacle course, but Pilar looked up smiling she had been training for it, hard.

“Okay gang get a good night’s sleep, see you all on the course tomorrow.” Captain Jericho simply nodded “Okay then class dismissed.”

Pilar walked with Marcie back to their bunk area which had formerly been the dining area but had been converted to the sleeping area by the labor droids.   Marcie tried to talk about the party, but Pilar simply ignored her until Marcie gave up and went and got a shower.   Marcie’s bed  area was next to hers, but each of them had their own little cubicle.  Pilar was again thankful for these comfortable single beds;  they were much better than the beds back at the Missionary school.

After her own shower she threw herself down on her bed.  She pulled out her comm panel and called each of her five crew members to ensure they were okay.  They had all been sent in separate directions for cross training. Her gunners were practicing on the larger guns mounted on The Axe and The Tornado, the Squadron Command ship.  Her co-pilot was getting familiar with the single person fighter, the Shark.  Once she knew her crew was good, she brushed her teeth and climbed into her bunk.  Marcie was and everyone else was shutting down for the night and the large room got quieter and quieter.  Pilar said goodnight to Marcie, who had given up talking about the party.  Marcie simply smiled and said good night

Pilar adjusted her covers in the oh so comfortable.  This was another thing she was thankful for, a real bed, not a corner of a dirt floor in a dirt house in a dirt-poor town in a dirt-poor country.  Even when she was sent to the Missionary school, she had to share a bed with two other girls.   But since the Awakening she slept in a real bed.   And except for a few nights on the survival course, it was clean blankets and the luxury of sheets as well.

She woke sometime in the middle of the night.  She couldn’t say why.  Perhaps someone had moved around or dropped something in the big room.  She looked at her watch, two a.m.  Four hours to reveille, four hours since lights out.  She tried to go back to sleep, but despite the comfortable warm bed, her belly being full and her being as safe as possible she could not fall back to sleep.   Tired of trying to be tired, she got up  quietly and put on her workout clothes.

Another thing she was thankful for, different clothes for different activities.  Back home she had two dresses.  One for work and the other for mass on Sunday, of course her mother had a couple of dresses.  Being the favorite whore for the local army officers  had its perks.  One time she had gotten into her mother’s trunk of dresses and put on a shiny red dress when her mother was at ‘work’.  Her grandmother had beat pretty badly that night when she caught her.  That was the first time she had run away from home.  Her mother found her sleeping under the big tree near the road the next morning.  She was seven or eight that first time she ran away.  She was unsure exactly how old she was her birthday was a bit of mystery to her.  Her grandmother called it a cursed day.  Her mother was uncertain except that it had been a wintry night in December.

She finished tying her shoes, some called them running shoes, other tennis shoes, some called them trainers.  She liked the last one, trainers for physical training.  She discovered she was one of strongest, fastest, gunship commanders, even surpassing some of the men.  She adjusted her small shoulder hostler so it fit underneath her left arm just so.  It was optional to wear a firearm in physical training uniform but she always did.  She quietly left her sleeping cube glad she had not woken up Marcie moving around.

She made her way to the hallway outside of the lecture area, there was a replicator outside the classroom, maybe a glass of milk would help her go back to sleep.  She turned the corner and came face to face with Lt. Remington.  She quickly jumped back out of shock that someone else was up.

“Oh, excuse me, ah Lieutenant?”  Remington said in a guessing tone at her rank.

Pilar tried to recover quickly. “Ah Lieutenant.”

Remington smiled, which did something physical to Pilar and she stumbled to say her name.  “Lieutenant.”  She took a breath. “Pilar.”   She said now tongue tied.

The tall man smiled.  “Bread?” The blue-eyed man said holding up a loaf of bread in his left hand.

“Bread?”  Pilar said, confused.

“Sure, a late-night snack, do you know I got arrested once for stealing a loaf of bread.”  He motioned for her to follow him to a table with attached benches. “I spent three hour in the pillory for that.”   He smiled.  “Not the worst three hours of my life.”

The table with the attached with attached she had learned was called picnic bench, but to her it was just an impractical table with benches that did not move.  Someone had to explain what a picnic was to her, which she had a challenging time wrapping her head around. Eating outdoors on purpose.  Heck, eating was not a sure thing in her life, so making a purposeful choice to eat away from where the food was cooked was very strange.  But she followed the Lieutenant because she was not sure what else to do.

Remington stepped on the bench and planted himself on the tabletop, the man was relaxed.  Thinking back to him watching him sitting in the classroom earlier she realized the man was a study in relaxation, he looked like at any moment he could take a nap.  He easily ripped the loaf of bread in half and handed her half.  She took it numbly and climbed on the table next to the man, probably two feet away.  “Thank you.”

The Lt. nodded, and he tore a large piece off it and popped it in his mouth.  “Good bread.”  He said chewing.

Pilar did the same thing and realized the loaf of bread was sourdough, the same type she had had earlier in dinner.

“Good huh?”  The two of them sat there chewing, and then the man snapped his fingers. “Oh yeah, I forget.”  He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a tube and flipped the top open.  He reached out with the tube and motioned for her to put a piece of bread out, which Pilar did.  He squeezed the tube and a bit of butter was smeared onto her bread.  Then the S-4 did the same with a piece of his bread.  “Bread is great, but nothing beats bread with nice warm butter on it.”

They sat there for a while, not saying anything just munching on bread.  After about ten minutes  Pilar had her and waved him off when he offered her more.

“Yeah, we got to run in a couple of hours I should probably stop eating myself.”  He said looking at the leftover bread.  “Just leave your leftovers there I will recycle it in a replicator.”  He laid down on the picnic table with his legs dangling off the edge.

Pilar did not know what to do or say. “Thanks for the bread.”

The tall man had closed his eyes.  “Don’t mention it.”

Pilar was confused, was she being dismissed? The guy was nice enough but she did not know what to say or do next.  And he was just lying there on top of the picnic table.  She got up and brushed the crumbs off her clothes but the Lt. did not move.  “Well good night, and thanks again for the bread.”

The Lt. yawned.  “Good night, see you tomorrow in on the obstacle course.”

Pilar left and looked back a couple of times at the prone individual, she thought she heard a slight snoring right before she turned the corner to go back to her sleep area.

She got back to bed but laid there for a while, thinking about the man she had just had bread with.  Very strange.  She thought back, when was the last time she had food with just a man, alone.  She thought about it, never.  She had just had a strange late-night snack with a man.  Sure, she had  sometimes eaten around a table, with a lot of other people, but never alone, and never in the middle of the night.  Not that it was planned or anything.  She laid there for a long time, listening to the soft snores and rustles of other people around her.  At some point she fell asleep.

The next morning, she popped out of bed at the first tone of reveille, she was always first.  She might not be a great pilot but no one worked harder than her, especially in physical training.  And she loved it.   That morning, she passed seven men on the long distance run and they had started before her.

Now she was on the obstacle course and stayed up with everyone in her group on the course.  She looked back once and saw Dao struggling with the inverted ladder.  She was on the next to last obstacle, the high crawl through a series of tubes, when she sensed someone gaining on her.  She had just cleared the tubes when Lieutenant Remington popped out on her left and sprinted full speed toward the last obstacle, the wall.  She had noted he was two groups behind her when she started, how he had caught up to her.  While she was pouring everything she had, he sprinted past her with ease towards the final wall and easily jumped to the top without a rope and drew himself upward so easily.  She was two steps behind but she needed the rope to get to the top.  He turned and smiled at her; she smiled back.  Remington then winked and disappeared.  She was shocked by the wink and lost her concentration and fell back down the wall.  She growled and then grabbed the rope but by the time she got over the wall he was at the finish line, and she had been passed by two people from her group.  She practically lumbered crossed the line, now only third in her group.  She stomped off to the table with drinks on it angry that the showboat had passed her and thrown her off her game with that damn wink.

She ignored everyone’s congratulations for such a great time, but it was clear to everyone that she was in a bad mood.  Marcie was particularly sickly sweet, saying all manner of pleasant things to her, trying to get her to smile a couple of times. Marcie gave up during breakfast and  Pilar was happy with being left alone as she took her place in the lecture area.

“Good morning, everyone, we are going to have a great day.”  Lieutenant Remington said bounding to the stage.

Pilar just rolled her eyes, at the up tone he was using, the man was a showoff and a braggart.  Someone yelled out congratulating him on the fastest time on the obstacle course and he brushed it off with false humility.

Pilar rolled her eyes. Suck up.

Remington started his presentation and went into his overall duties as the Logistics and Supply Officer for the next few minutes. Pilar listened but then she noticed his blue eyes and lost herself thinking about the sky and the delicious sweetness of blueberries and bread and butter.

It was when he opened it up to questions that Pilar began to re-engage with what he was saying.

“So, you say it is your decision what materials we get resupplied with?” One of the other female gunship captains asked.

“Well, it is my job to ensure that you have the tools, supplies and weapons not to mention the spare parts to carry out the orders and intentions  of Sr. Captain Jericho, in accordance with the overall Fleet Mission.”  Remington stated from where he was leaning on the podium.  He leaned on the podium like he had been poured onto it with his knees and elbow jutting out,  it, but at the same time looking like he was ready to spring inti action. The man was a study in contradictions.

“So, you get to decide what I can have and what I can’t.”  The blonde female gunship commander asked with a tone that was very flirtatious.  There was some laughter around the room at the double entendre.

Pilar hated her.

Remington simply nodded and answered.  “It is my duty to ensure that you can complete the mission assigned to each gunship.”  Remington did not give the girl anything to work with.  Not a smile, not a smirk, not a wink.

Pilar smiled at the blond man for so deftly turning away the girl. Then he turned his attention back to the classroom as a whole.  “I have a list of anticipated high demand items that I think will be needed for the initial off planet training that we will begin in a month.”  He clicked on his comm panel and a lengthy list of items appeared both on the screens behind him and the commander’s individual comm panels.  “If you could look these over during the break, we will discuss the list after a ten-minute break.”

Marcie fell instep beside Pilar as she made her way to a replicator and they both got coffees.  Pilar liked Marcie’s company, mostly, but unfortunately sometimes she talked to much. “So how tall do you think he is?”

Pilar did not answer.

“I am thinking just a little over 2 meters.”

“Too tall for my tastes, but it might be fun to climb up there once or twice.” Macie  who was on the short side, just a little under one point five meters, made it sound extremely dirty.

Pilar rolled her eyes.  “Slut.”

Marcie ignored the insult.  “You are just a centimeter or two under two meters.”  Marcie noted.

Pilar sighed. “What’s your point Marcie?”

“Don’t really have one.”  Marcie said after sipping her coffee.

Pilar scrutinized her friend. “Yeah right.”

“You like him.”   Marcie said in a teasing tone.

Pilar spat back. “I don’t know what  you are talking about.”

“Yeah right.”  Marcie said collecting the empty cups and heading to the replicator for them to be recycled.

Pilar stood, knowing she was never going to tell Marcie about the bread and butter meeting last night.

They made their way back to the lecture hall promptly at the ten minutes mark and the discussion continued.  “So does anyone have any questions, comments, or concerns about my anticipated list of most needed items.”

Numerous hands went up, Pilar’s included.

Lt. Remington nodded.  “Please state your name when your ask your question, I would like to learn everyone’s faces please.”  He looked around the room.  “Pilar please ask your question.”

Pilar heard Marcie snicker softly when the Lt. used her name but she continued.  “What are your priorities when resupplying a gunship?”

“Great question Pilar.”  Lt. Remington stated.  He hit a button on his comm panel and about a quarter of the items on his list turned red. “As you can see, those items in red deal with munitions, and components for blasters and missile launchers.”  He hit another button and another quarter of the items turned blue. “These items are for propulsion and life support.”  He turned back to the group.  “Keeping you flying and fighting are my main priorities.”  He looked around the room then back at Pilar and smiled.  “Great question Pilar.”

She heard a slight giggle from Marcie again.  Pilar sat down and felt for her brass knuckles, she thought maybe she could talk Marcie into a little close quarter combat training after class.

Luckily, everyone’s  attention was taken off her completely by Dao, who asked the next question.

“I really do not understand the big deal we all have replicators on our ships, we even have Bussard collectors on our ships to collect raw materials, so I am not sure what is the big deal?

Lt. Remington nodded at the question. “And your name sir.”

“Oh sorry.  Dao, Gunship Seven.”

“Thank you Captain Dao.”  Remington said.  Technically Dao was not a Captain, only a Jr. Lieutenant, but anyone who commanded a ship with hyperdrive capability was called Captain here in the Fleet.

Remington pulled up an unlabeled wire diagram on the display.  Pilar along with everyone else automatically identified it as a Type Four replicator which was on all their ships. “Now can everyone tell me what this is.”

In mostly unison the group stated.  “A Type Four replicator.”

“Very good class.”   Remington nodded.  “Everyone has at least two of these on their ship.”

There were nods and numerous “yes’s” from around the classroom.

“Okay here is a hard one class, so what is the longest length of item you can produce on your ship?”

Pilar did some quick calculations in her head, but someone from the back row got to the answer a split second before she did and Remington pointed to that person. “Captain?”

“Eman Gunship Eleven,”  She paused. “Diagonally across the metallization chamber you can create a sixty-seven point oh eight-centimeter item.”

Remington nodded.  “Technically correct but good luck getting that item out.  The practical answer is sixty-six-centimeter item, then it cannot have much depth otherwise it will get wedged into the materialization chamber.   “Trust me, Tech Joe and I have broken a couple replicators trying for something bigger.”  He made a motion with his hands of an explosion.   “Now then can anyone tell me what the dorsal plating of a Type fourteen missile is made of and its dimensions?”

There was initially silence then a few people put up their hands, Pilar included.

Pilar was glad she was not called on, as she only knew half the answer.  But luckily the person who was called on only knew half the answer as well. ‘Diuranium bonded with a carbon fiber outer covering.”

“Correct.”  But Remington looked around the classroom still waiting for the second half of the answer. “But no one knows the size of the top dorsal plate?”  Remington stated.  “Tsk tsk people you need to know your weapons inside and out.”  He said, shaking his head dramatically.  “Well, I will give you this one. The dorsal plate is exactly ninety-one point oh four centimeters long and an interior width of 8 centimeters.”  The piece he was talking about appeared on the screens now.

“Now then can that piece be made in your Type Four replicators?”

A chorus of no’s came from around the room.

“Correct class.  You need at least a Type Six replicator “  And another wire diagram with dimensions listed came onto the screen. “We have four of them on The Axe, and two Type Sevens.”  An even bigger replicator appeared on the screen.  “They are equally distributed on both the port and starboard repair bays on the ship.”  A diagram appeared showing the location of the replicators and their relationship to the repair bays on The Axe.

Remington went on to discuss the time it took to make items on the diverse types of replicators and how it would be delivered to their gunships on the repair line.

There were a few murmurs around the room as people noted the locations of replicators, especially the larger ones.  “Very good folks.  Now I want to tell  you what you can do for me.”  There were murmurs around the room.

“I envision a time, and Captain Jericho agrees with me when I might have to take your raw material that you have gathered while on operations.” This caused very spirited murmuring around the room.

Remington waited for the chatter to die down.  “Since The Axe cannot reposition itself as fast and easily as your gunships, us being your support vessel, we cannot simply chase clouds of hydrogen and helium and other easily broken-down gases to get raw materials for our replicators, we might have to get passed materials you have gathered.”  The back and forth under talk was less heated now.  Pilar sat stoically simply processing all the information. “I have already anticipated that this might not make a lot of sense at first, it might even go against the grain for some people.  I mean you gathered the material, it was your efforts that got your raw material tanks full, so why should you have to share it with people back at the lowly support ship.”  Remington held up his hand before people could respond. “And yes, we get resupplies from ships like the Star Digger, at least that is how it is supposed to work, but we will be going into combat operations sooner or later, and our enemy the Alarians, might not always simply let our resupply to happen on a regular basis.”

Dao raised his hand when his hand went up people got quiet.  Remington noted him. “Captain Dao, Gunship Seven.”

Dao stood.  “So, I am the Captain of my own ship?”

Remington nodded. “Yes, yes you are.”

“So shouldn’t I be allowed to make whatever decisions I want with my supplies, correct?”

“Well right now.  But the Admiral’s staff has started to talk about making a restricted list of items that will not be allowed, items that could be detrimental to the good order and discipline of the fleet, items like alcohol and other intoxicating substances, but so far, no rules have been put in place.”

This caused a great deal of murmuring again.  Pilar had already put blocks on her own replicators banning it from making alcohol, she hated the stuff, particularly how men got after drinking, she could still remember its smell on Father Mendoza the nights he visited her in that little bed in the solitary punishment room at the school. She shuddered involuntarily.  She looked up and realized Remington had caught the involuntary movement and his face for just a split-second displayed curiosity, but then he turned back towards the group as a whole. “Like I said it is still under discussion, nothing has been decided yet.”  He looked around the room. “And on that note, I think it is time for a break.”

Pilar made her way to the closest bathroom and splashed some water on her face trying to wash away that bad memory.  She looked around for Marcie when she came out but did not see her.

A hand touched her shoulder. “Pilar.”  A voice said behind her.  She turned it around quickly, her hand touching her holstered weapon

“Whoa, sorry I did not mean to startle you.” Junior Lieutenant Remington said, taking a step back.

“Yes.”  She said trying to make her face neutral.

“I saw you already restricted alcohol from being dispensed on your ship.”

“So.”  She snapped.

“Oh,” Remington stumbled verbally; the first time she ever saw him do that.  “I thought you might want to have a list of other items the Admirals staff is thinking about banning from Type Four replicators.”  He said he was motioning towards his comm pad.  “Would you like me to send it to you?”

Pilar’s became suspicious.  “How did you know I put an alcohol lock on my replicators?”

Remington held up his hands in surrender.  “Sorry I did not mean to pry, but I keep an eye on all replicators tied to The Axe, that means all twenty gunships assigned to her.”

Pilar simply nodded, then added. “I guess that makes sense.”

“I assume you have your reasons for your ban, but I think your ban was too broad, it should be refined to drinking alcohol, right now your crew cannot replicate alcohol for cleaning or medicinal purposes.”

“Oh.”  Pilar said simply.

“I could send you a less restrictive wording for the ban one that allows for emergencies, medical  and cleaning products.”

Pilar simply nodded. “I would appreciate that.”

“Okay then.”  Remington looked at his comm panel and hit a few buttons. “Done.”  He looked at her and their eyes met for a second, and Pilar gave an involuntary half smile and he responded with a nice warm smile as well. The moment ended when they heard some other people coming back into the  classroom.  Remington made his way back to the lectern and Pilar went back to her seat in the second row.

Coming right behind Pilar was Marcie, who sat and then leaned very close to Pilar. “Did you two just have a little moment there?”

Pilar shook her head angrily . “No, no, he was just telling me something about the ban I placed on my replicators about alcohol.  No, nothing else.  Why would you say that?  He was just helping me out with some programming of the replicators.  No, nothing else.  Why would you say that?”   Pilar felt her face getting hot.

“I think the lady doth protest too much.”  Marcie said.

“What is that supposed to mean?”  Pilar said a bit flustered.

Marcie chuckled.  “Nothing, it was just something I heard once.”

“It was really nothing.”  Pilar said.

“Sure sir, if you say so.”  Marcie said smirking.

“Shut up Marcie and don’t call me sir.”

The rest of the class was spent going over requestion requests that could be filled out vocally with their ships positronic brain and what priority would be used for certain items.

Captain Jericho came onto the raised dais at the end of class and individually congratulated a few people on their huge improvement on the obstacle course in times since the last test, Dao was one of them.  Jericho further noted that overall, the obstacle course run time had dropped by a full minute for the entire group.     Luckily, he did not go on too long, at the end when dismissed  the class all stood as one did the new salute, right fist to the chest.

“So, what are you going to wear?”  Marcie asked bubblier than normal.

Pilar rolled her eyes.  “Why?”

“Why what?”  Marcie shot back.  “It’s a party, maybe some dancing, some singing, some time to kick back and have some fun.”

“Drunken idiots most likely.”  Pilar spat out.

Marcie stopped short and put her hands on her hips. “Have you been to a party since the Awakening?”

Pilar was not used to Marcie being confrontational.  “Ah no.”  Pilar didn’t volunteer that she had never been to a party, ever.

Marcie sighed.  “Then how do you know.  I know people have treated you poorly, I know people can and have been rotten, scummy, and just evil to you, but that was before we came here,” she took a breath.  “These people,”  Her hands waving around the area. “these people overall are pretty damn good, some are annoying, some grate on your nerves, but I have yet to meet a bad person, let alone  bad men.”

Pilar simply grunted.

“I am going to be playing my violin.”

Pilar smiled.  She loved hearing her friend play her violin.  The music Marcie made was something else, almost magical at least to Pilar.   Marcie had played long before the Outfitters had taken her and now played as often as she could, which is how Pilar had met her.  One night early in training, Pilar had been outside her ship getting some fresh air when she heard music.  She had followed it up a hill behind her ship.  At the top of the hill was Marcie sitting on a stool just playing for herself, she simply nodded at Pilar as she came up the hill and continued to play.  Pilar found herself sitting, and listening to her play for over an hour before Marcie stopped.  Pilar did not know what possessed her but she had applauded.  Marcie blushed in the darkness and did a bit of bow.  They had been friends ever since.

“Can you trust me like you did on the survival course?” Marcie said looking into her friends eyes.

Pilar looked back at her.  Marcie had really helped her out on that course, saving her from drowning, it had been a heck of night with most of it spent in a river, and after that Marcie had quietly been teaching her how to swim. Marcie kept her secret and she trusted her intrinsically.   Marcie was her friend the first she had ever had.

“Come to the party, it will be fun.”

The sun was just setting to the North when Pilar, Marcie and three other officers hopped off the flat bed hovercraft dropped off at the party site.  Marcie had replicated for herself a simple black satiny jump suit with sparkly buttons, cut just low enough to show a little bit of cleavage. She had defended her outfit as practical as she would be playing music with some other musicians from the group.  She had put up her hair in fancy updo.  She claimed it was again to facilitate her playing, but Pilar thought it was to attract a certain guitar player who Marcie had been looking at for a while.  Her friend looked great.

Pilar felt as though everyone was looking at her as her friend left her and went over to the other musicians.  Marcie had preemptively made her promise to wear one of three outfits she had replicated for her.  One was a jumpsuit similar to Marcie’s but in red.  Pilar shot that one down seeing how her much more ample breasts were even more display then Marcie’s, plus the red satiny material made her think too much of her mother.  Whorish.

The second was a short skirt made of a material Marcie called blue denim, along with a black shirt with silver buttons. Pilar liked the shirt, but the skirt was too short and Marcie insisted that she had to wear these blue ‘cowboy’ boots with it and Pilar thought they looked uncomfortable.

The final dress is what she had accepted.  It was a dress reaching down to her mid-calf, and with three quarter length sleeves with a straight collar, with buttons up the front.  Marcie tried to get her to go with a yellow color but Pilar had insisted on a light green.  Marcie had insisted on a pair of semi dress shoes, a sandal type of shoe with a very low heel.  Pilar had thought she would not like them, but they were really not bad on this temporary wooden flooring that was built for the party.

People were arriving on the flat top cargo hovercrafts in small groups.  Pilar had wandered over to the table with the food and drinks, she had learned this was called a buffet.  She had seen one back home, at a party she was not invited to, she thought it was a wedding or something.  Back then it was more food than she ever saw before, unfortunately someone had seen her in the area and they had chased her away from the party.  Now she could eat all she wanted and no one would chase her away.  She had grabbed a plate and tried a little bit of everything at a small table on the edge of the party platform.

“Do you like the red rice?”  Dao said as he  moved through the tables toward her.

Dao was wearing some sort of puffy shirt with a sash around his waist.  She had never seen anything like it before, but it looked comfortable. Pilar looked over her plate where she was finishing the last of the rice. “Yes, it was good.”

“I brought it, well really I replicated it right over there.”  Dao said pointing to the temporary trailer with a power pack and two type three replicators on it.

“Oh.”  Pilar said not knowing what to say.   “Good job on the obstacle course.”

Dao nodded.  “Improved by a minute and half.” There was a pause in the conversation.  “Did you replicate anything from home?”  Dao asked.

Pilar had not.  “I would not know what to make.”

Dao looked over at the buffet.  “Well, the table is kind of light on deserts, maybe you could make something sweet.”

Pilar thought about it for a second and then remembered something that had been suggested by her crewmember once.  “Have you ever tried fried ice cream?”

Dao shook his head.  “No but it sounds interesting.”

Pilar smiled. “It is good, I will go make some.”

“I will try it.”  Dao said.

Pilar nodded and  walked towards the replicators.  Marcie and her band, the Axe Grinders, started to play as the party started in earnest.  It was some sort of dance music, something called American Old West folk and dance, which all the musicians could play as a hodge podge of styles and types from all of earth’s regions and time periods.    All Pilar knew it was ‘happy’ music and her friend had fun playing it.

Pilar reached the replicators and had to wait while a few other people made some dishes for the table and turned and watched her friend play her violin.

The other people walked around her and she turned her attention towards the replicator.  She remembered this time it was a ‘dumb’ replicator, not like the one back on her ship which could interpret her requests.

“Machine, show fried ice cream types.”

The machine complied and she highlighted the one that looked the best to her.  She was about to put in size and quantity.

“Miss Perez, aren’t you looking spectacular tonight.”

The voice of Junior Lieutenant Remington said loudly from behind her.

She turned and there he was in a pair of what Marcie called blue jeans and a long black sleeve shirt with silver buttons.  She saw it would have matched perfectly the one that Marcie picked out for her earlier.  He had his sleeves rolled up a bit showing off his very muscular forearms.  All this ran through her mind as he walked over to her.

“You are something else in that dress.”

Pilar did not know what to say, she felt her face getting hot.

“Your friend Marcie suggested this shirt, do you like it?”

Pilar gritted her teeth and swore at her friend under her breath but smiled outwardly. “Yes, I like it.”

“Yeah, I was not sure about it, but if you like it, then I like it.”  Remington closed the distance between them till he was standing pretty close to her. “What are you making, do you need any help carrying it to the buffet.”

Pilar regained her composure. “Ah no I am good.”   She turned back to the machine and hurriedly tried to remember where she was in the ordering process.  It was then that Remington got even closer to her, just within arms reach  on her right side.

“Well after you are done, would you like to dance?”

Pilar half turned to him, interrupted again, and looked up at him just slightly. “I really don’t know how.”

Remington leaned in closer to her, his blue eyes so close, so close she could not help but smell the clean soap smell that came off of him. Pilar could not help but give a warm smile when he replied. “I am not a great dancer but I could show you what I know.”

Pilar felt her knees buckle ever so slightly and she turned back to the replicator and punched some numbers on the keypad, then turned back to him. “I think I would like that.”  She said surprised at her own boldness and then she hit the activation button on the replicator.   The machine started its customary noise but it continued a lot longer than it should have and things started happening.

The two officers looked at the machine and did not have enough time to say  ‘oh no’ before balls of fried ice cream started popping out of the machine and then started to strike them in the legs and lower waist area and the two of them stepped back instinctively.

“Hit stop.”  Remington said panickily as the balls of sweet confectionary continued to pour from the machine onto them.

Pilar reached out at the same time as Remington but the semi soft balls were now on the ground and they both slipped on them at the same time and went down grabbing onto each other clumsily. They landed and a few more ice cream balls popped out of the machine and landed on them.  And the machine stopped making noise, but a few treats still fell out of the machine onto them.

They looked at each other in shock and then started laughing.   Then a stern voice shouted. “Lieutenant what is going on here?”

Both Pilar and Reminton looked up to see Captain Jericho approaching.  Remington answered first.  “Sorry sir, a bit of mishap with the machine.”

Pilar looked at the control panel and realized what had happened.  “Sorry sir, I reversed the number of treats and added a digit and the machine just kept making them, totally my fault sir.”

“How many did you want?” Jericho said standing above them with his hands on his hips.

Two more fell to the ground before Pilar answered. “Fifteen sir.”

Jericho looked at the mess. “Looks more like two hundred and fifty.”  And to punctuate his statement a few more confections fell out of the machine.  Jericho nodded then with a slight smile formed on his face.  “Well, no harm really done.”  He looked around at the mess. “You two should get some clean clothes on, I will have a labor droid come over and clean this up.” He looked at Pilar. “Lieutenant  Perez, we do have to be smarter than the machines we operate, just be more careful next time.”  He looked at the mess and smiled. “Remington you might want to write a program for the ‘dumb’ replicators so this does not happen again.”

“I will get right on it sir.”

“Not tonight Remington there is a party, just go get cleaned up  and come back to the party.”

Pilar looked at Remington after Jericho turned away and smiled. “Sorry.”  She smiled again. “But in my defense, you distracted me, asking me to dance and all.”

“Well, I am so sorry, I won’t do that again.”  Remington said, smiling and offered her a hand, she took it and the two of them stepped out of the mess.

“Does that mean you don’t want to dance now?”

The tall man smiled. “No, it means I will not distract you again while you are operating any heavy equipment.” he said smirking.

“Lets go get changed, although I think I am going to change my outfit to something else that Marcie picked out for me.”  Pilar said smiling, maybe those cowboy boots would be good for dancing.

Categories: Short Stories, Stories from the Fleet, The Outfitters Universe

Tags: awakening, classroom, dao, gunships, marcie, pilar, pilar perez, pilar perez and marcie, replicator, s-4, sanctuary, technology, thai