The next two weeks flew by. Sam happily agreed to go to the dance with Hailey. Liandra confirmed that she was going with a boy in her class. She, Robyn, Alyxia, and Kida met Kiera and Haley in town on the day of the dance to shop for their dresses and have lunch. They went back to the dorms and styled each other’s hair and applied makeup. Kiera also treated them to mani/pedis while they were in town, and included Captain Feren. It would have been rude to get them and not include her.

Kiera chose a shoulderless, backless dress with slits cut into the sides starting at the lower thigh, that was held on with a thin neck tie. There were sequins sewn into the hems so it was eye catching but not ostentatious. It was the current popular style in the Empire, and the other girls chose similar dresses in different colors. Liandra’s silver dress made her look radiant and Hailey’s green dress made her look like a forest nymph and brought out her eyes; the compliment made her blush.

Their dates met them at the restaurant. Liandra’s date was a covert orange haired tiger moreau named Calvin Hobson. He had tiger ears, a tail, and black stripes on his face. He was charming and polite, making sure to pull out Liandra’s chair and never once glanced at Kiera’s chest, unlike Robyn’s date, Walt, who panned around the table blatantly checking out each girl. Robyn had seemed caught off guard when Walt arrived, he pulled her aside and they had a small conversation. She didn’t look very happy when they rejoined the group. Kida’s date was a moderate orange tiger moreau named Benjamin Gaiden; he had visible tiger ears, a striped tail, fangs, a pink triangle nose, whiskers, and fuzzy hands with retractable claws There was a small amount of tension when he met Koda but they remained cordial.

Alyxia’s date was Isaac and he had to look away when Kiera came up to give him a hug, surprised and delighted to see him again. Her soothing calmed him down and he was able to talk to her while looking at her. Leiella and Holt were sitting at a table nearby, sitting with them was a pair of chaperones from the Navy. Kiera caught a few looks come from the Navy chaperone and he stood up a couple of times only to sit down with a word from Holt. Halfway through dinner Koda excused himself and came back ten minutes later. Kiera noticed that he was looking at Robyn’s distasteful date who was trying to get too handsy and kept bringing up the drinks at the dance. Robyn oozed uncomfortableness, regret and anger. More than once Ben gave him a dark look and cleared his throat.

“Robyn, you’ve got a smudge of foundation we must have overlooked, let’s go fix it really quick,” Kiera said after they finished their meal. Robyn stood up and went with her, Kida joined them.

Once they reached the bathroom Kiera wrapped Robyn in a hug, “Sweetie, who is that asshole? Do you really think that Neil sent him?”

“That’s Walter Knowles,” Kida answered for her, “That’s not who asked Robyn to the dance. That would be Neil Charleston who is going to get an asskicking by Ben.”

“Wait, what?” Kiera asked.

“There is a guy in Ops, Michael Watters that I asked and he was appalled, I didn’t think he hated aliens. Neil was nearby and came over and admonished Watters and then asked me to the dance. Walt said Neil got into trouble and wouldn’t be able to make it, so he came instead so I wasn’t stood up. He’s not in my classes so I don’t know him that well,” Robyn said.

“Ben saw Neil walking across campus when he was getting in the hover car to come here,” Kida scowled. “Arm in arm with Jenny Leonard, the andropalaxian from communications. I sent Jenny a message and apparently Charleston heard she didn’t have a date and asked her; she didn’t know he’d already asked Raya.”

“Wow,” Kiera shook her head, “You don’t have to stay with him, once we get to the dance we can ditch him. I know some great guys who’d love to dance with you. Let’s go have some fun and forget about these jerks.”

-[]-

The formal was held in the ballroom of the Imperial Grand Hotel; a memo had been sent to all the cadets that they were not to book rooms in the hotel and would be returning to their dorms at the conclusion of the dance. Kiera doubted that the order would be followed by everyone, especially because of the obvious loopholes: off world dates booking a hotel, paying someone in town to book the room, booking one under an alias, among other sneaky methods. There was no guarantee that nearly five hundred people could all be accounted for; unless they were setting an alert field around the ballroom.

Tables surrounded the dance floor, the bar was flanked by refreshment tables on both sides walls, and the DJ was set up on the far side walls. Their IDs bands were scanned upon entering and a pair of virtual tickets for the bar were added. The ballroom was decorated in Imperial colors: silver, red and black. The individual of the three branches decorated the tables. Several picture booths were set up along the same wall as the entrance with enough room for both couples and groups.

As they entered the ballroom the group was met by Jin Reed. He walked up to Robyn and held out his hand, “Good Evening, my name is Jin Reed, Mechanized Combat Corps. I received a message saying a beautiful woman had a most incorrigible date to this event. May I be your escort for the rest of the night?”

“Whoa pal, what do you think you’re doing!” Walter snarled, interposing himself between Jin and Robyn, “This chick is mine tonight. You are not going to steal her away from me, I didn’t go through the trouble of getting a room to not get laid by a girl who can handle some rough sex.”

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“Excuse me?” Robyn and Alyxia said in unison.

Walter ignored them, glaring at Jin.

“This sorry excuse for a date is definitely over,” Robyn said, “It’s bad enough that I was bait and switched, but you were never going to get a kiss let alone get laid.” She pushed past him and linked her arm in Jin’s, “You may, I would love to have you as my date.”

“What? Oh no you alien bitch. I paid Charleston too much money for you. You belong to me!” Walter shouted, getting the attention of one of the sergeants checking in the cadets.

He walked over to the group, his insignia indicating he was with the Armored Special Forces. “Did I just hear there was a transaction for a woman?” he growled.

“You did,” Kiera said, “This cadet sid he paid another cadet for his date and made plans to rape her.”

“You bitch! That’s a lie! Charleston said she was easy, willing to sleep with any guy who gave her the time of day! I paid him to take his date off his hands!” Walter snapped.

“He showed up and told me that Neil Charleston sent him to replace him because Charleston couldn’t make the dance,” Robyn said, “He admitted to booking a room with plans to get laid.”

“Alright cadet, you’re coming with me,” the sergeant grabbed Walter’s arm and pulled him back towards the entrance.

“Well, that was exciting,” Sam commented, “Let’s go get our pictures taken and hit the dance floor!”

They took both a couple pictures and a group picture and joined the rest of the crowd on the floor. The slow dances happened about every half an hour, with three back to back at the end of the night. With so many people it was hard to find anyone else without sending a message. Gargax was easy to spot in the crowd. He had come with his roommate, a cute sandy haired boy with gray eyes and a scar running across the bridge of his nose the length of his eyes.

“Sunbeam!” Gargax greeted, lifting Kiera into a tight hug, “I miss you!”

“I missed you, too!” Kiera said, returning the hug and giving him a kiss.

“This I roommate Boss. Boss help I much. Good mate for Sunbeam!” Gargax grinned.

“Locke Mickleson,” the sandy haired boy said, offering his hand, “I would settle for a dance.”

“Kiera Sol,” Kiera took his hand, “I would love to. Wait…I know you! We were at the officer’s trial together! You wrapped yourself around me to get me warm!”

“What? Wow..I thought you were beautiful before, but now you are just stunning!” Locke said as she took his arm.

Kiera mostly danced with Koda, sharing a couple with Gargax and Locke, who was charming and met her eyes the entire dance, even commenting how beautiful they were. It was hard not to get lost in his hazel eyes. She had one dance with Isaac and Calvin, mostly so she could get to know him a little better and make sure he was just as good of a guy as he was presenting himself. There were too many people for Kiera to have her empathy toned down due to the sheer number of people, but she could read him with physical contact just fine; she approved.

At one point Jin found Captain Feren and managed to get a dance with her, to both Kiera and Hailey’s amusement. Corbin found them halfway through the evening accompanied by a girl who was at least six inches shorter than he was. She was also from Grandelar and was serving as an officer in the Army; they were having a formal as well, but the guys there mostly ignored her so she was more than willing to come to the Navy ball and received permission to travel.

Kiera had been proven right about the proximity alerts; there were bathrooms in the ballroom on the far wall, and any cadet that went through the entrance set off the alert. They were taking the no sex policy seriously. The academy supplied limousines for transportation back to the dormitories, each one holding eight couples and divided by branch. They said their goodbyes before getting in their respective lines; Jin got a kiss when he and Robyn parted.

After they were dropped off at the dorms, Kiera escorted Koda to his room, and Hailey did the same with Sam. Jin lingered in the entrance.

“Aren’t I supposed to walk you to your door?” Koda teased.

“If you were the one to ask me to the dance, yes,” Kiera replied, “But I asked you, so I get to walk you to yours. I had a really good time tonight. Thank you for being my date.”

“I did, too. It was a lot of fun, you’re a lot of fun,” Koda said, “I will happily be your date anytime,”

Kiera grinned and hugged him. She pulled back after a moment and then gave him a long kiss. He returned it. They parted slowly, “Sleep well, Koda. You really do give the best hugs.”

“Um, y-yeah. Y-you too, Kiera,” he replied with a dopey grin before turning and walking into the closed door.

“Koda, are you okay?” Kiera asked, trying to suppress a giggle.

“Yeah, yeah,” Koda said, opening the door, “Just, ah, wow.” He stumbled into his room.

She passed Jin on the way back to her room, “Hey, Jin,” she said, touching his arm, “Thanks for rescuing Robyn tonight. She’s a friend and I really appreciate it.”

“Thank Koda, he sent me a message that a really sweet girl got bait and switched for a real scumbag and asked me to white knight. How could I say no?”

“It makes me really happy that we have some great guys here.”