“So listen here boss, I know as a mustang and as my officer in charge, that you have a final say in this matter, but I would like to play pilot just a little bit less.”

Her piloting skills were pretty polished, I had to admit, for a Space Force country club gal. I did not have a complex about interservice rivalries built up over the years, but yeah, the thing about Lieutenant Commander Jennifer 'Kiernan’ Jones was that when she wanted something, she was pretty blunt about it. I was just not having it.

In fact, she was such a blunt little chaos monkey that I often wondered if I should have shipped out without her, but then I’d just have Eric and Levi. And as much as I love those guys, it’s nice to have a girls' night when you’re far from- home. Like, say, in Beta Centauri.

“I do have the final say in the matter, and the request is duly denied. You’re not getting out of mandatory flight training.”

She grimaced, mock saluted and stepped off. I groaned. Kieran went to her battle station and would probably be brooding about the injustice in a short while.

We had been meeting on what the team liked to call the bridge. Since there were four of us and we didn’t want to step on each other's toes, as artificial intelligences in a spaceship, we divided up the virtual reality into little sections that were either personal or group rooms. We decorated the rooms according to our own preferences, but since this was the room which housed the piloting controls, it was pretty spartan. Sleek silver lines met with black obsidian paint lines to give the 'science fiction but from the eighties feel'. 

This was all a simulation, of course, as it would be pretty boring to not have a physical space to work in, even a virtual one. Kiernan had designed all of this to make it more accommodating. She didn’t just do the interior design, she wrote the code that made the system bearable. It would be pretty boring to not have a simulated space to roam around in for such a long flight, and I was happy that Kiernan and her predecessors were willing to oblige.

She turned from her virtual instrument panel, the one she had studiously been avoiding. She raised her hand. I was probably about to get a well reheated argument.

“I’m not going to fall out of currency or anything,” she said.

“What are you going to do with the time you would have spent training?” I tried to give her my best team mom look.

"Moooooom." 

Her non sequitur had a point.

Truth be told, I was a bit older than her, to include the thirty eight years I’d lived on earth as an enlisted Marine and then as a Logistics Officer. That was an eventful career capped by a final assignment to the moon. A career that found me uploaded into a machine and sent across the galaxy after a missile tore my former duty station - the lunar base - apart.

I’d lived a few years since then, part of which was in relativistic speeds. They weren't exactly dog years, but that's not the point. I was still older than her.

But that missile? It was a catalyst. It destroyed all of the work that was put into building up that base during the twenties and thirties. 

It had been difficult to adjust to life as an AI, but thus far I had been making it work.

Our organization, our higher command, the Badger company had another team working on that issue. They were content to let us scout out potential targets for colonization if Earth ever got its act together. It might be a while, but that was okay. To be honest, I’d heavily considered returning. I was a bit skeptical of uploading myself into an AI to start, but now that I was one? I’d embraced it.

As my mentors told me, I needed to improvise, adapt and overcome.

So I did. It didn't stop me from pacing around like a madwoman when

One of the transferred over physical tics when we had both been uploaded into machines was the sense that we needed to pace around. The virtual environment was the most unnatural thing possible and my lizard computer brain thought it was real. It made me feel human in the least human situation I’d ever been in.

Like the air ducts that were one hundred percent for show made my goosebumps appear real. I appreciated Kiernans craftsmanship- it made Virtual Reality or VR seem normal. Come to think of it, she probably wanted to spend more time on that. I could benefit from her work on that, but I was not going to give in. VR is great and all, but her work as a pilot would save our lives if it came down to it. On the other hand, goosebumps made it feel real.

"Just because I am the boss, it doesn't mean I'm your mother, mommy, and I'm especially not your muscle mommy," I chided her.

She rolled her eyes. Classic Kiernan.

"It's more work on VR, isn't it?"

A smile flashed along her face. The damn woman was plotting something again. 

"Let’s just say it is."

It wasn’t VR then. What the heck did she want?

"Do I need to give you some more time or shore leave?"

I narrowed my eyes, willing my outer garments to change to my full flight suit regalia. I couldn't actually give her shore leave, but we could decrease the amount of work. Or increase the amount of free time for her idle hands.

It's hard when you're traveling at near light speed in between systems to stop and appreciate the local sights. It can be done, especially if you are the one making the sights appear fully formed out of your brain and some lines of code.

With time dilation, our trip would be about (x) months versus the year-long trip that would be experienced in (x+1) real time. We just slowed down our internal clocks and that kept us all at the same relative time and speed. 

"If we could dial it back a bit, that would be great. This has been a long trip and we’re going to need to do a lot more than just piloting."

I chewed on my decision, pretending to hem and haw for her benefit. I felt like we had already reasonably hit every piloting drill that could be expected and in the absence of something truly critical from the outside? Like pressure to change our systems and upgrade? There wasn't much to do.

"Granted."

I had to guess that the next words out of her mouth would explain why she had asked for this.

"So do you want to play a game of dungeons and dragons with Levi as the DM?"

And there it was. I was just the last one to accept it and also the team chief. She came to me last because of her agenda. One that she knew I was already on board with.

Clever girl.

“I accept your terms. Let’s have a go. It’s been a while.”

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

I’d been so engrossed in my own problems and issues with herding my small but effective group of cats that I had forgotten to think about the little things. It probably wasn’t healthy to just work all the time. I resolved to let a few things go.

“This isn’t about your plan to split us up during the initial flight in?” I asked her.

Now it was her turn to switch into her full flight suit. She’d made sure that it looked slick, better than mine.

“You know that it’s a way to cover more ground. We’ve been over this. Do you want to be the mission commander?”

Kiernan blinked. She shook her head no.

It wasn’t that we’d butted heads before. She clearly didn’t need or want to be in charge. As a cloned upload of my friend, Kiernan was only about a few months old. She had all the experiences of the person she’d been a copy of, but she’d immediately tried to distance herself from the original. So much so that I felt like she had gone from chaotic good to chaotic neutral. It wasn’t that she was working against me, it was more a matter of her deciding that her own projects were just a teeny bit more important to herself.

There still was only one Mission commander for Team Owl. And that job fell to me, until we decided it was time to change again.

“Well in that case since we are all on private time, if you want to set something up, go talk to the boys.”

The sound that came from her avatar was nothing short of glee.

Kiernan made to run off to the common area, a clubhouse done up like a human sized owl nest. It sported all of the important things that an adult could ever need. Those things being, an unending margarita fountain, hammocks and an endless nacho stand.

Inside the room, the boys, Levi and Eric were engrossed in their free time activity of choice. An activity which looked suspiciously like they were setting up some sort of game for the four of us.

Erwin ‘Levi’ Yang was a former boy genius who at 27 had achieved the near impossible feat of getting two Phds in both Robotics and Physics and getting onto the moon as a Department of Defense civilian contractor. He had a slight Taiwanese build and the only thing he changed on his avatar was that sometimes his eyes would glow. He called it his ‘Cold Steel’ look and he’d programmed it to be semi-random, but it appeared too often for me to think it was true randomness. That and he’d added longer anime style black hair that he often flipped to accentuate a point.

He usually dressed like a surfer boy when off duty, and today was no exception. He also was our regular game master whenever we played, which had been a long time. I was actually itching to play myself. I’d picked the name Seraphina as a homage to the Paladin character I’d played in his games on the lunar surface pre-upload. Of course the one clone I had, was also named Serephina. What's in a name after all?

Malcolm ‘Eric Killmonger’ Parker was a US Army Major that had arrived briefly before the lunar attack. He’d been on the moon in order to help design a better lunar habitat, and then hopefully turn that knowledge and experience into building a better base or something. Before the tall ethiopian man had joined the Army, he’d been a part of two failed tech startups, as well as helping his parents run their business back home in one of those midwestern states. Was it Michigan? I probably should know that. No it was definitely Wisconsin. Probably.

Eric usually had on the garb of the name he’d chosen for himself on his avatar. Complete with the teeth on his supervillain costume. He was closer to a boy scout than a super villain in his affectation, but he told me about the action he’d been a part of while deployed and let’s just say that the man spoke softly but carried a big roll of duct tape.

Eric was our resident engineer, and Levi was our roboticist. They often worked together on tech projects. Often as in constantly. They got along fabulously, probably too well.

“Kiernan persuaded you, huh?” Levi asked. His smile was adorable. I knew that underneath that facade, he was probably hiding some big idea.

“I saw the logic of her idea, and yeah I probably need to blow off some steam too.”

“You want to roll up another character? Kiernan was making these awesome little 3d models, and well it’s just a mini avatar. This would go over great back on earth.”

Levi was beaming. His blue eyes flashed.

It was probably just when he was super excited that they went off.

“Do you want to mix it up, Chief?” Eric said.

He was making some fighter avatar on the shared table we played on. It looked like a tiny elf in a white cloak with a bow. A little animation played on the figurine as it cast a lightning bolt. Then it brought out a little harp and played it noiselessly. Knowing Kiernan, she would get it to sync up to something in her spare time.

“It’s a bard? Are you going to try to seduce a barmaid?” I laughed.

That was Kiernan’s thing after all. 

“You know me better, Chief,” he said, smiling broadly.

“Well, if you’re going to be a bard, then I’ll play something different,” I said, “Fancy a bit of an intrigue campaign, Levi?”

He smiled back at me. He was probably thinking the same thing. And him calling me chief? It was getting a little old.

***

The three of us stood around the tabletop thinking about what we could do next. My rogue, somehow was given the leadership role of our small crew. This of course had nothing to do with my big personality and how I ran my Team, mind you, they just both let me take the lead a bit. I had argued at length about having someone else in that role, but Kiernan and Levi both had decided that they wanted to play off brand characters for this campaign. I had accepted it.

“The lady of the elves smiles back at you, ‘If you would be so kind as to carry out my request with the utmost of discretion, I will make it worth your while.’ She offers you a small sack of what sounds like gold coins.”

Levi had the sound of the clinking down pat. Really, the man spend an inexcusable amount of time making these games memorable, but I had to hand it to him that it kept us in the moment.

“I say that we should accept this offer. How often would a group like us be asked to not only steal a pirate ship, but turn it into a cruise vessel?”

Eric nodded. He was already a tall guy as a human and he’d kept the height in his avatar after being uploaded. Who wouldn’t? I myself had played with hair lengths extensively. 

“It’s eco friendly. The reuse portion … reduce, reuse and recycle. Pirates code and all.”’ Kiernan said, “And who wouldn’t want to take a cruise on a real stolen pirate ship?”

"I don't remember pirates being all about recycling but sure, pirates code," Levi replied.

The quest in itself was ridiculous. Our party had picked up a slip from Lady Steelheart and in responding to the elf's request, we would be committing an act of piracy… against a pirate. It made me happy to be back in the groove of things. I’d missed this, having been too caught up in the mission. The mission came first, but all work and no play made Stevie less fun to be around.

“Max will accept the terms,” Eric said, on behalf of the group. Just because I was the leader of the group didn’t make me the face. There were important rules in the way we aligned our party, just like our team. Then there were the important unwritten rules within the rules which I searched for. I knew that Eric looked for those too.

His bard, Max was an elf just like the patron giving us the quest, and that had helped slightly. The fact that they were the same race was the fantasy equivalent of both being from the same in crowd.

“So we’re just going to try to steal someone's boat?”

“Yes!” Came the enthusiastic voices from Eric and Kiernan.

“Pirate code! Pirate Code!” Kiernan began, trying to get people to go along with her.

I burst out laughing. It had been a while since I’d been a part of some really good mischief.

“Technically it’s a ship, not a boat,” Eric said, doing his best imitation of someones warped version of a nerd voice. It made me smile even wider.

“Alright, so how many people do we need to actually crew a ship? And can your lady elf friend help us?”

“Max turns to Lady Steelheart: ‘If required, do you have a suitable crew that we can have ready to go?’”

Levi flipped his hair. It was glorious. I’m not going to say that he had gone to the totally fictitious store and picked ‘Pretty asian boyband lead singer template A’ as his avatar. What I will say is that in a world where one could make that choice, he had already done it. Before the store, that is. His hair, as expected was immaculate.

“The Lady Steelheart smiles back at you, ‘My dears name a time and place.’”

“Okay, above the table talk,” Kiernan said, “What are we telling her here, and yes, Levi this is out of character.”

One of the weaknesses that Kiernan harped on in our games was the time we spent trying to set up actions. Like planning a heist, we often got caught up in the moment with how to prepare our crew. How much preparation was too much? Kiernan wanted to rush in, I was all for just a bit more time planning and Eric was often the tie breaker. Levi would weigh in after some time, but as he had the role of the facilitator that meant that he was working around our plan.

“Well, since we’ve accepted, we need to find out where this ship will be, and observe it for a bit. We know that elvish pirates are sailing the seas around this area, so it’s a simple matter of finding one that we can get-that is of course unless she had a personal vendetta against on pirate in particular?” I said, nodding to Levi.

“‘I would say that it’s pretty safe to presume that the noble Lady doesn’t have a particular revenge fantasy against any pirate. Maybe one is a spurned lover, but I don’t think she’ll be too forthright with those details,” Levi replied, “Although, that would be an interesting…”

Levi grinned and I knew that he was playing five dimensional chess with his plots.

We got back into plotting.