“Are you happy this is your last day at the bridge alone, Lieutenant-Commander?” Lieutenant Zu asked me at the end of our shift. She had also been transferred over to this shift at her own volition, to at least give me a modicum of company in a team I otherwise didn’t know very well.
“As long as Lieutenant-Commander Fox doesn’t relapse, yes, I am pretty happy about it. I take it you are too?”
Zu nodded while I took the rest of my paperwork together. I still had to fill in some pieces of administration on paper as Lieutenant-Commander Fox preferred to work that way. “I’m also pretty happy about the double rest-shift so we can align ourselves back to our normal work roster.”
I chuckled softly not to pull the other officers out of their concentration and then beckoned Zu to follow me out of the bridge. “You did have to pull a double shift to get onto this one though.”
Zu shrugged. “That’s all in the past, I’m a person who lives mainly in the present.”
“Fair enough.” As Zu mentioned we would have two back to back rest periods so that we could get back on track for our regular coworkers. It required a little bit of sleep trickery as we were basically going to jetlag ourselves, but I took to that surprisingly well so it wouldn’t be an issue, besides, if anything we still had pills and other kinds of medicine provided by our lovely doctors to help us overcome said inconveniences. “Don’t spend all your free time partying, okay?”
“That’ll entirely depend on what McAllister is planning.”
“You do have a say in the matter on if you want to go party or not.”
“Eh, I’ll be fine, LC.” Zu saluted me. “Don’t worry about me and put your entire attention on the Commander, I’m sure she’ll like that too.”
I rolled my eyes with a smile as I saluted her back. “Definitely. Have a good night, Lieutenant.”
“Goodnight, Lieutenant-Commander.”
We both went our separate ways as I headed towards the cafeteria to grab some food. As I rounded the last corner I almost smacked into Lauren who was heading towards the bridge. Luckily she wasn’t carrying any food or I would have gotten it all over me.
In response to our little run in, Lauren smoothly grabbed me close to her in a big hug. “I see you are dying to see me as well.”
I tried to push myself off of her but she did hold me tight enough to make it a bit of a struggle. “You flirt, you are going to be late for your shift if you keep this up.”
Lauren gave up without making a fuss of it, smiling at me with a wide grin. “Awh. Not even a kiss?”
“I’ll be willing to concede that much.”
Lauren leant in, making me bridge the rest of the distance, but I did so with no hard feelings, giving her a tender kiss on the lips.
“See you after shift?” I asked as I slowly pulled back again.
“Y-yeah.” Lauren sounded a bit flustered. “Coming right home afterwards.”
“Are you grabbing food?”
“I’d rather eat you but if you want to…”
“Wha- Lauren!” My cheeks flushed bright red because of her reply.
She smirked. “I’ll bring some, don’t worry.” She then backed off and formed a cutesy heart sign with her two hands.
I rolled my eyes, still blushing profusely after which I blew her a kiss. “Don’t be late, okay?”
“Don’t worry about it.” She winked. “See ya later, babe.” She then waved shortly and jogged off to the bridge.
Before I continued on my way I looked around, luckily no one had heard our little exchange, except for one person. “Ellie, pretend like you didn’t hear anything, will you?”
“I’ll wipe my memory of the last thirty seconds, Lieutenant-Commander.”
“Many thanks.”
I got my food and ate it in silence after which I headed towards the cabin. Lauren had left it incredibly neatly as she tended to do when she got up by herself, with the typical tightly made bed and orderly cloth pile on her closet. Nonetheless, to spend a part of the remaining time I had by myself I decided to thoroughly clean the entire cabin. There wasn’t very much to be cleaned and especially with the help of a cleaning bot it didn’t take too long, but I wanted everything to be spick and span for the little romantic evening I had planned for our joyous reunion.
I already set up the table for a candlelit dinner for the both of us, after which I laid down on the bed to rest a bit. “Ellie.” I summoned Ellie into the room’s intercom.
“Yes, Lieutenant-Commander?”
“Could you make sure you wake me in three hours?” It was adamant I didn’t rest out completely otherwise I’d negatively impact my reintegration with the other shift. But a power nap was in order.
“Yes, Lieutenant-Commander, I will wake you up at 1500 Earth Standard Time.”
“Thank you very much.”
“Would you like some calming music to help you fall asleep?”
“No, I won’t need any help with that, Ellie.” I smiled. “Thank you for asking though.”
“No problem. Good night, Lieutenant-Commander.”
“Good night, Ellie.”
It required little to no effort to fall asleep after the bit of work I had done and just like Ellie promised she woke me up three hours later. That did leave me with quite a couple of hours still to fill before Lauren would arrive though. While I could fill that with reading books, I wasn’t really in the mood for that, so I looked at our AI companion to give me some tips.
“Hey Ellie, what would you recommend for a somewhat light activity to fill the time with?”
“The firing range is calmer than usual at the moment. It might be a nice surprise for the Commander as well to learn that you have used it. She herself has used it a couple of times to blow off some steam while your shifts were out of alignment.”
“Oh, that’s actually not a bad idea. I haven’t really used the firing range before.” I got off the bed and stretched my muscles. Do I need to wear anything special?”
“I’d recommend pants and combat boots combined with a training jacket. Hearing protection and security glasses are provided on location.”
“Thank you Ellie.”
“I also see that Gunnery Sergeant Taylor is currently on the firing range, would you like me paging him that you are also heading there?”
“Do you think he will stay especially for me?”
“I have no doubt about that, Lieutenant-Commander.”
“Then maybe you can, yes. It would be nice to at least have someone around who I know better.”
“I’ll send him a message right now.”
While I changed clothes, Ellie told me that Gunny had agreed on meeting me there and thus we met up shortly after at the firing range.
“I was surprised to hear you would be coming to the firing range, Luna.” Gunny saluted me even though he didn’t exactly keep to military protocol. Apart from another marine we were the only ones present.
“I had some time to spend, better to use it to train my skills a little bit.”
“And to impress Lauren?” He grinned.
“Maybe a little.” I admitted.
“Alright then.” Gunny smiled. “What would you like to shoot?”
“I don’t know, what does Lauren normally shoot with?”
Gunny nodded and beckoned me over towards the wall which housed a console. He tapped a couple of inputs together on it and shortly afterwards the wall opened up to show me a weapon I recognized from the pictures the propaganda team had taken on Felix Invenire. “The P900-R carries a 100-round top-loading magazine of teflon-coated ordinance, with a cyclical rate of fire of 1200 rounds per minute.” He took the gun off the shelf and jammed the magazine inside of the gun. “It can easily saw trees in half with the power it carries.”
Suddenly that got me quite nervous. “Uh… maybe I should start with a handgun instead…”
“Don’t worry.” Gunny laughed that little protest away. “It packs a bit of a punch but it’s really ergonomic so it’s easy to control.” He put his earring protection on and put on some glasses, beckoning me to do the same. I followed his instructions and he then brought me closer to the firing range. “I’ll shoot a short burst, after that you can have a go.”
I nodded and Gunny then proceeded to hose bullets down the range, all hitting their intended target mannequin 70 yards down the range. It was loud but not as loud as I was expecting, probably because of the hearing protection.
“Now you go ahead.” He handed the gun over to me. “I’ll guide you through the steps so don’t worry about screwing up. Training people to use weapon systems is my job.”
“Alright.” I took the gun out of Gunny’s hands and with his expert guidance had quite a blast blasting it in the firing range. -I can see why Lauren likes using this gun… Maybe I should go to the range a bit more often.-
“Natural talent, XO. Great job.”
“Thanks, Gunny.” I smiled.
“I’ll wipe my memory of the last thirty seconds, Lieutenant-Commander.”
Suuuuuure, I bet she saved a clip in a file named "My adorkable Friends being adorkable"
Yep, pretty much xD
@FieryKathy Can't blame her, would do the same, and then use it to tease them, tastefully and polite of course
Yeah, I can imagine her fun on the range, I just hope she won't need those skills outside of training
I hope so too :3
@FieryKathy And in the next episode of C.A.S.E.: The cute alien GF of the Commander has to defend the ship against the evil Alien Empire
@Asatur :3
So long as you're not having to share the range with a bunch of idiots an afternoon plinking can be quite enjoyable.
Idiots are never fun to be around
hmm🤔, I bet Ellie has a secret data bank filled with audio/video recordings of intimate/embarrassing/incriminating moments on the ship organized by person. ready to blackma... I mean persuade people to her goals. especially the spy's.
and I can see it now, Lauren and Luna, back to back gunning down a hoard of enemies, followed by a passionate kiss. and then Luna wakes up😁
Very passionate kissing ensues
“It can easily saw trees in half with the power it carries.”