“Looks like you had a wonderful evening, Commander.” Eva smirked as we encountered one another in the hallway on our way to our posts.

“I can barely walk straight…” I replied to which my girlfriend started to giggle.

“I take it you enjoyed your surprise?”

“Very much.” I admitted. “I definitely didn’t expect that. But it was a very pleasant surprise to be greeted with once I came out of the shower. I guess I should thank you for it as well.”

“I just merely gave her a couple of pointers, that’s all. Most of the honor goes to your beloved Lieutenant-Commander herself.” Eva curtseyed a little towards Luna.

Luna curtseyed back. “Hehe.”

“Well, let’s talk some more after we get back from our duties for today.” I leaned in a bit closer to the Doctor. “I take it you didn’t just mess with the box for that?”

Eva nodded. “Yeah, we’ll talk about this later when it’s all of us together. Better to do it at my cabin, we don’t want my new colleague to overhear the discussion after all.”

I nodded back. “Alright, then we will bring some food over to your place.”

“Sounds good to me.” Eva smiled, took a step back and then saluted me. “Have a nice day, Commander, Lieutenant-Commander.”

“You too, Doctor.” Both Luna and I did the same after which we split it up to head to the bridge.

Once there we had about two hours of FTL jump left before we would finally arrive at the Felix Invenire system to drop off our escorts. That time passed relatively quickly even though during the jump we didn’t have too much to do. In the end, with the sound of 5 pops, all our ships arrived safely back at sub-light speeds.

Almost immediately afterwards the ship was hailed by the captain of the UFS Santa Maria, the frigate that was supposed to stay here with the colonization ships.

“Good morning, Commander.” The Captain greeted me.

“Good morning, Captain.” I replied. “Packages have been delivered, leaving them in your care now.”

The Captain nodded. “Before you go, I have a favor to ask.”

-Ah… There goes our hope for a swift departure.- “Go ahead, Captain.”

“My ground crew would like your ground team to accompany us to the subterranean structure you found on this planet. The engineers would like to use it to set up a command center there.”

“Do you really need our ground teams for that? The coordinates are clearly marked on the maps, are they not?”

The Captain nodded. “That’s what I told them too, but some of the political officers insisted on your teams, with you in particular, being present to make some footage for the home front…” From the roll in the Captain’s eyes I could see that this request was not something he was making willingly. “If you find that your duty lies elsewhere right now, I will try to find a way…”

“It’s okay, Captain. We’ll stick around for just a bit, but please tell those officers to be ready as soon as possible. We don’t want to be hanging around for too long. To add to that, would you please also mention that they could have told us sooner. It’s not like they didn’t have time before to make the request.”

The Captain nodded. “I will tell them loud and clear, Commander. My XO will be accompanying them down to the planet to keep them in check.”

I nodded. “Then let’s get into orbit and get it over with as soon as possible.”

With that our ships broke off the communications channel.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

“Looks like the Captain drew the short end of the stick when it comes to political officers.” Lieutenant Zu remarked. “Those people got quite some nerves to make last-minute requests like that.”

I puffed up my cheeks. “Well, I guess they have a job to do as well. Can’t really fault them for that, for all we know they’ve only just received the order.”

“That seems unlikely, I would have received that order as well with our gear.” Lieutenant Zu replied.

“That’s affirmative, Commander. Any communication with our squadron would not have gone by unnoticed.” Ellie added. “The Lieutenant is right.”

“I was just trying to find some redeeming qualities, nothing more.” I chuckled and then turned towards Luna. “Lieutenant-Commander, I’ll leave the bridge to you, I’ll go suit up already. Could you relay the order to the ground team as I’m on my way.”

Luna nodded. “Be safe down there, don’t try to bust your shoulder again.”

“For sure.”

“And get some nice pictures from those officers while you are at it.” Luna winked. “So we can hang them in the cafeteria.”

“I think that’s a brilliant idea, Commander.” Lieutenant McAllister chuckled while guiding the ship into the planet’s orbit. “Nothing better than pictures of our awesome Commander to sheer up the crew. Extra points if they are slightly comical.”

“Lieutenant, be careful, or I’m taking you with us on a ground mission, we’ll see who will have the last laugh in that case.”

“No can do, Commander, neet to fly the boat, you see.”

I rolled my eyes and chuckled. “We can have Lieutenant Zu take over from you for a bit.”

“But she’ll scratch up the paint job.”

“As long as I don’t need to park it in reverse, I’ll be fine.” Zu replied.

“Offer still stands, McAllister.”

“I’ll still pass, Commander. Thanks for the offer though.”

And with that last quip I decided it was time for me to head on to the armory to get ready for a planetside excursion.

This trip to the armory gave me a nostalgic trip, even though the last time we had been here wasn’t even that long ago. With the same squad composition as last time it all just felt like a repeat of the last drop on Felix Invenire. The only big difference, and one that kept drawing my attention, was that the locker to my left now belonged to someone else and a plaque with Spark’s name hung above it.

Gunny, who had already put on a part of his suit, came to stand next to me while he equipped the rest of his gear. “Having these plaques was a nice gesture, Commander.”

“Mhmm.” I nodded as I opened up my personal locker. “Although I would prefer not having to hang them up.”

“That’s true, but at least like this it feels like they are still with us in a way. Never to be forgotten.” When Gunny was done with hoisting himself in his gear he helped me a little to make things go a bit faster.

“Thanks.” I said as I stretched in my suit and took the helmet out of my closet. The other marines were already ready and waiting on me to lead the way to the hangar. “My apologies by the way. This little trip wasn’t exactly planned.”

“It’s always good exercise, Commander.” Corporal Jones replied. “Marines weren’t made to sit on board the ship constantly anyway.”

“That’s a good reply.” I smiled, putting my hand on the Corporal’s shoulder. “Do attempt not to fall through an ancient bunker’s roof this time though. The Lieutenant-Commander told me to be careful and the doctor isn’t going to be very happy with me if I need to catch your weight with my shoulder again.

“I will not, Commander!” She immediately went into attention. “I have decided to let private Kasongo walk in front of me the entire way.”

“Hey….” Private Kasongo frowned.

“Don’t worry, I will walk in front of all of you.” Gunna laughed. “I’m the heaviest anyway, if something is going to break, I’m probably the one it’s going to break on.”

“Just try to be careful.” I laughed. “The Doctor isn’t going to like it either if you come back with a broken leg or worse.”

“Fair point.” Gunny nodded.

“Alright, as we are all ready, I suggest we make our way to the shuttle so we can get the photoshoot over with quickly.”

“Yes Commander!” My marines all replied at once.

The trip through nostalgia lane didn’t end in the armory as it was Yuki as well who had prepped the shuttle for launch.

“Any electronics upgrades this time, Ensign?” I asked.

“Not this time, Commander. The shuttle is completely in order though.”

“Purrs like a kitten, Commander.” Our pilot gave us a thumbs up while he hauled a last box of supplies on board of the craft.

“Good, do you need any time to prepare or are we ready to go?”

“Ready when you are, I would say.”

I nodded back and looked at my marines. “I know we’ve been to this planet before and we were joking a bit about the dangers of falling through the floor earlier, but do still keep your eyes open. There was nothing on this planet when we left it, but those bugs could go anywhere with their space hulks. Watch each other's backs and make sure we get home safe.”

My marines all straightened their backs and gave me a nod in return. Time to focus and complete the mission like we always do.