Pirra whistled to herself as she went out the door.

Alexander would be excited to see her, she thought. She had not told him that she had decided to come, she wanted to surprise him. Besides, he was probably already there without his system!

She had left hers in her office. It was always strange to be without her system and HUD. It was normal protocol that everyone on a starship go without them on occasion - you did not want to become so used to them that you became helpless - but it still felt odd.

It did keep things in perspective, though, since you had to just really look at the world around you.

She adjusted her wing drapes as she went. Alexander always dressed up when he went to these events, so she had done the same.

Dessei standards of dressing up were quite different from human ones, though. Humans often became more drab, opting for only a few colors. But for her people, you wanted to be a goddamn rainbow.

She had toned it down; limiting herself to black and white, with yellow trim. It matched her green plumage and red eyes well, she thought.

As she whistled her way down the hall, she saw a flash of red.

She froze a moment, realizing before she was even consciously aware of it that it was Kessissiin.

On paper she ought to feel positive about him. He was one of the best in her unit, after all. He distinguished himself in every encounter, and he admired her greatly.

But she could not get past his hero-worship - or his species chauvinism.

"Hello, Commander," he said, with just the right level of pleasantness and professionalism. She had him on watch when she was not. It had been the suggestion of her planning algorithms, and they were great - and official - tools. Kessissiin did not like it, and had requested to be changed to another shift. She had been happy to implement the schedule and denied his request.

Hopefully, she thought, the system had not made the suggestion solely because of her emotional reaction to him.

"Hello," she said, adjusting her path to just go by him.

"May I speak with you a moment?" he asked.

He did not move into her path, which would have made her immediately turn him down. So she stopped.

"Yes?" she asked.

"I simply would like to wish you a pleasant evening," he said, his crest flashing in a motion to represent simple happiness; a smile.

"Ah, well thank you. To you, too," she said, offering the same politeness, and turning to move on.

"Where are you off to for the evening?" he asked.

She felt a thrill of annoyance that showed in her crest, and from the shift of his eyes, she knew he saw that.

He did not politely back off or feign remembering that he had to leave, something to let her off for answering, though. He only seemed . . . Well, he was staying hard to read, but she thought he might be slightly nervous.

But why, if he was nervous, was he holding her up further?

"I'm going to a religious event with my husband," she said. She wouldn't lie about it or couch it, even if it wasn't any of his business. She had nothing to hide.

He reacted with shock. "You're going to a human religious ceremony?"

Her annoyance grew. "Yes. So? I'm going because Alex believes in it. I know you're not married, Kessissiin, but this is a healthy thing that partners do for each other."

"But you don't believe in it?" he asked.

She scowled in response. She had implied that, hadn't she?

"When was the last time you - or your supportive husband - went to a Dessei cultural event?" he challenged, his crest raising.

"I am not playing into this," she replied sharply. "And this is the second time you are out of line recently!"

Kessissiin did not seem in the slightest troubled by that. "I know that you love your husband, Erreseh-"

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"What did you just call me?" she demanded, eyes widening and crest rising. Erreseh was an intimate term, something that only someone who was the closest of family, a lover, or someone with whom you shared an eternal bond of comradeship should be called. Not him to her!

"-but he is not the only one who loves you!"

He leaned closer, his hands onto her arms. He hovered there, unsure, as she stared at him in shock.

With a bonk, something hit him on the head.

"What?" he yelped, staggering into her slightly. She pushed him aside, the assailant behind him still unknown to her.

As he fell to the side, she realized that it was not an assailant - or, at least not one aimed at her.

Apollonia was raising the plastic tube again, her eyes tracking Kessissiin and preparing to launch another blow as he staggered to the side.

Pirra reached out, grabbing the pipe before she could do that.

"Apollonia, stop it," she ordered sharply.

The human woman looked to her, surprise widening her eyes. "Wasn't he attacking you?!" she said, trying to wrench the pipe free from Pirra's grasp.

"No!" Pirra said. "I mean, he was . . . taking liberties!"

"Let me hit him again then," Apollonia said, as if it was the most reasonable thing in the world.

Kessissiin let out a groan, rubbing his head. "This is the human that just attacked me?" he said, gesturing to Apollonia, but staring at Pirra.

"If you had been doing your duty instead of . . ." Pirra struggled to find the appropriate words. ". . . . all that, you might have heard her coming! And she only thought she was protecting me from your loutish behavior!"

"Loutish?" Kessissiin said, his tone sounding hurt.

"You were being a fucking creep," Apollonia said. "Damn weirdo sex perv-"

Kessissiin rose in one swift motion, making a sound that could be mistaken as nothing but aggression.

Pirra moved in between Apollonia and the man.

They were of equal height and weight. Dessei males and females did not have much dimorphism, so they'd be similar strengths, and they both had high-end military enhancements. If he did want to get to Apollonia, who lacked anything like that and was quite a bit smaller than him, he'd have to go through Pirra.

He stopped, though, clearly unwilling to fight her. "She attacked me!"

"She has no augments, and your skull is reinforced," Pirra said. "Go see a medical drone but I'd bet anything you're fine."

Kessissiin's crest moved in ugly ways. "You always side with them over your own people."

"You are acting out of line," she said coldly. "And you are out of my unit. For this, and for what you did just before that. Go turn in your weapons and your badge. You are benched until further notice."

Kessissiin let out a slow whistle of shock. He was, she saw, truly stunned by this, and could not even reply for a few long moments.

"I understand," he finally said, standing up stiffly. "Commander."

"Go," Pirra said.

He turned, marching like a machine, down the hall.

Pirra could not put in the order now, without her system. She wasn't even sure of the time, which twisted her gut in worry. What if she was late and got locked out of Alex's event?

"Are you all right?" she asked Apollonia quickly.

"Yeah," the woman said. "Did I . . . make that worse? I thought you might be in trouble."

Pirra considered how to reply. "I appreciate that you wanted to help, but you should have just called for assistance."

"I don't have my system," Apollonia mumbled. "He just looked like he was all over you like a . . ." she trailed off, evidently not able to think of an appropriate comparison.

"I am able to take care of myself," Pirra said, trying not to take offense. "Dessei don't have sexual dimorphism like humans."

"So you're saying you could have taken him?" Apollonia asked.

"Er . . ."

"In a fight, I mean!"

"Well . . . yes," Pirra said, her pride rising.

"Then why didn't you?" Apollonia asked. Pirra had a good feeling that it was a sincere question.

"Dessei are very forward in these things, so he wasn't . . . well, no, he absolutely was acting inappropriately," Pirra admitted, finding the nuances of her people's ways rather hard to explain to an outsider. Such sudden declarations were not strange, but he had gone about it all in the absolute worst way.

"But I did not want to resort to violence." Pirra added the last part pointedly, and Apollonia seemed to give off clear signs of regret and nervousness. "Why didn't you have your system on you, anyway?"

"Sorry, I was on my way to an event," Apollonia replied.

"You too?" Pirra asked.

"You're going?" Apollonia echoed.

They both nodded.

"Well . . . walk with me," Pirra said. "Kessissiin probably won't try to make any charges. But just . . . don't hit people with things, Ms. Nor."

"Not even if they need help?" Apollonia asked with a frown.

Pirra was not sure if Apollonia meant that Kessissiin needed help via bonking, or if it was to help someone potentially being attacked. ". . . Just try to have better discretion," Pirra finally said with a sigh. "At discerning who actually is in trouble." She eyed Apollonia. "What were you doing here? This isn't the way to the event."

"I was taking a walk first," Apollonia muttered.

She looked very concerned. Pirra was not sure if she really should be telling the woman she had done right.

But on a personal level she, well, she appreciated the thought.

She put a hand on Apollonia's shoulder. "Well . . . thanks," she said.

Apollonia perked up and smiled at her.