Chapter 7: Lieutenants Have Layers

Chapter 7:
Lieutenants Have Layers

 

THE IMPERIAL FLEET always performed maintenance on its ships after a battle whenever possible. Those ships were built with taxpayer money and lent to them by the emperor, after all, so they couldn’t be careless.

Despite the one-sided massacre, the Pirate Hunting Unit got stuck in maintenance for a while. Normally, soldiers would use mandatory maintenance as time off, but we had to concoct new strategies and review yesterday’s battle. It’d be just another normal day for me anyhow.

Or. So. I. Thought.

“Shall we be off, then?” Serena said, grinning. I’d arrived on the bridge of the Lestarius flagship for my usual teaching routine, only to find Serena alone and wearing casual clothing. A beige knitted sweater hugged her curves, and her black skirt showed off her legs. It might have been alluring, but she also wore a sword belt complete with some high-tech weapon. What is this, fantasy casual?

“Wait, what are you plotting?” I said. I wasn’t stupid enough to be all Okay! Woo, date with a pretty lady! Nothing about our interactions so far led me to trust Serena’s intentions in the slightest.

“Plotting? Why, it’s nothing that bad.” Serena punctuated her lie with a haughty laugh. I went right for my handheld terminal. “What are you doing?” she said.

I dodged the question. “Uh, nothing. So where are we going?” She probably didn’t care all that much about my momentary tapping.

“I’m off work today,” she said.

“Uh-huh.” Yeah, the getup kind of gave that away, though I wouldn’t have minded working for a boss who dressed like that every day.

“I was thinking of going out to eat in the city,” she continued.

“Sounds like fun.”

“Isn’t it just sad to visit a restaurant alone, though?”

Ha ha ha! Poor, lonely lady.

“Why don’t you invite a friend?” I asked.

“Unfortunately, I have no friends in this star system.” She cradled her cheek in her hand as if disheartened. How deliberate.

“That so? Why don’t you invite one of your subordinates?”

“I assume they would be rather uncomfortable seeing their superior this way.”

“If I’m being treated as a lieutenant, doesn’t that make you my superior as well?”

“Yes, but when the contract is over, that relationship will cease to be. It shouldn’t concern you as much as my other subordinates. Besides, you seem to be very outgoing, even when speaking to nobility.” Serena closed in, still smiling.

I scooted away, desperate to buy time. “Looks like I don’t have any work today, so I guess we could say I’m off too, right?”

“Oh, no,” she said. “I am off work, but you are not. I would like you to discuss pirate-killing strategies and your experiences over lunch. It’s work-related.”

“Work-related? This sounds like abuse of power.”

“Hee hee! Worry not. Nobody will reprimand me for abuse of power for something as small as this. You’ve been hired as a pirate hunting expert, so you should make sure to fulfill your duty.” She grinned like a cat closing in on her prey.

This kitty definitely intended to sink her claws into me. While I scrambled for an escape, my terminal started ringing. I pulled it out of my pocket and glanced at Serena for permission. She gave a reluctant nod.

“Hiro here!” I could scream for joy. My SOS to Elma had actually gotten through.

“How’s it going?” Elma said.

“Off work. Potential lunch.”

“You can’t refuse, huh? Accept, but on the condition that we can come with you.”

“Gotcha.” I hung up. Serena’s gaze had narrowed to a glare. “If my crew can come, then sure.”

“Rather strange to bring other girls on a date, don’t you think?”

“If this is work-related, then it’s not a date. Besides, Elma’s a veteran. She has way more experience than me. She’d be the perfect person to talk to if you want some real mercenary stories.” Checkmate.

“Urk… Very well.” Serena continued to glower at me, but she couldn’t refuse.

 

***

 

“Good morning, Lieutenant Commander.” Elma greeted Serena, exchanging smiles with her. “Your outfit there makes you seem quite approachable.”

“Thank you, Elma. Your apparel is lovely too. And Mimi, you are as adorable as ever.”

“Umm, th-thank you,” Mimi stammered. “Y-you’re very pretty, Lieutenant Commander Serena.” She was looking a little pale.

Elma looked like a traditional, full-on fantasy elf for once, with her green, flowy clothing. I wished I’d gotten to see her like this sooner.

Why don’t you always wear that? You’re always in mercenary gear no matter where we go. If you’re lazy, maybe a shirt and pants. That’s it. Wear some elf stuff, girl!

Meanwhile, Mimi had gone back to her getup from our shopping trip. It made her look like a nice little rich girl, refined and classical. Her bust was beautifully accentuated, of course. Meanwhile, I stuck to my usual pants and jacket. My philosophy when it came to clothing was that anything normal was fine by me.

“It’s usually my job to escort the girls around, but unfortunately, I don’t know much about the colony,” I said. “Oh, and also… Since we’re not at work, I’m not gonna kiss up much. Cool?”

“No problem,” Serena replied.

“Thanks. Things get too stiff when I have to be all polite and formal. So, Serena, did you want to go somewhere specific?”

“Yes. I’ve selected a restaurant with good reviews. It also offers organic food. I’ve arranged for transportation, so let us go to the fourth elevator and head into the city from there.”

“Aye-aye.” Organic, eh? So instead of food cartridges, we’d get real meat and veggies? Now she had me interested.

Mimi bounced along beside me, hardly able to contain her excitement. A restaurant like this would go a long way toward her goal of trying all the food in the galaxy.

“Never came here before,” I said when we piled into the elevator.

“Oh, yeah,” Mimi said. “When we went shopping, we used the second elevator.”

“The second elevator’s vicinity is a popular downtown shopping area,” Serena said. “This area is more for government offices and major corporations, so it is geared toward nobility and the wealthy, with high-quality restaurants and popular brands.”

We gradually descended to the city below. Once we stepped out, Elma commented, “Wow. Even the people walking around look rich.”

“Plenty of guards too,” I said.

Elma, Mimi, and Serena might have been able to blend in one way or another, but the guards eyed me in my boring merc gear. I probably looked like the girls’ bodyguard or something. I could tell they were just dying to frisk me.

Thankfully, Serena had ordered a taxi, so I didn’t have to endure the stares from the guards for long. We cruised smoothly to our destination, watching the ritzy, upper-class accommodations out the windows.

The taxi dropped us off in front of a tall building that looked nothing like a restaurant to me.

“Our destination is on the third floor,” Serena informed me.

“Looks like a normal building to me.”

“Living space is valuable, so they focus all the gaudiness on the inside,” Elma said.

“I-I’m rather nervous…” Mimi murmured.

Serena giggled. “Tee hee. It’s only a restaurant. There’s no need to worry. I’ve reserved a private room, so you won’t have to fuss over manners.”

“A private room, huh?” If Mimi and Elma hadn’t come to my rescue, I would’ve been alone in a room with Serena. She really was willing to use any means necessary to get me wrapped around her finger.

“We’re right on time. Shall we?” Serena prompted, guiding us inside.

 

***

 

“You know,” Serena ranted, “they all look down on me because I’m a woman. But we work our butts off, I’ll have you know.”

“Oh, um, yeah. Sure,” I said politely.

Just a half hour into our meal, Mimi, Elma, and I had all arrived at the same conclusion: This lady’s nothing but work!

Things had started out fine. Fine wine accompanied a meal of real-deal meat and veggies. As a general non-drinker, I stuck to water, but Serena indulged until her eyes glazed over. Every sip made her less and less articulate. When we suggested she might have had enough, she just said, “It’s my day off, and I’ll drink all I want!” Honestly, we might have just egged her on.

“Bowing my head when I don’t wanna, forcing smiles…and what do I get for it?! They just look at my damn tits! I oughta cut them up!” Serena said.

See?! Like that!

She’d told us outside we didn’t need to worry about manners, but maybe this private room was really so Serena herself could cut loose.

“Oh, uhh… Calm down, okay? Put the sword down.”

Serena drew her sword and jabbed it in the air. I rushed to her side, easing the weapon from her hands and setting it aside for now. I really did not want this lush getting violent.

“And you!” Serena seethed, glaring at me. “How can you resist me when I’m trying so hard to tempt you?!”

“Do you wanna know?”

“No, I don’t.” She clamped her hands over her ears. “I already know. Trying to scout you by force is wrong…”

“So you were self-aware all along.” Elma chuckled as Serena laid her head down on the table.

“Uhh, so you said I’d start off as a warrant officer if I joined the fleet, right?”

“Yes. Wanna join?”

“What’s the pay?”

“About 4,000 a month…”

“I can make 100,000 a day if I try. Do you see? There’s no reason for me to join,” I told her.

“Ulp…”

Crying won’t help, girl.

It wasn’t that there was nothing in it for me to join the fleet. I could try to rise through the ranks and become a knight, then use that status to get my dream house. But that would take forever. I’d toil away for ten years or more. They might even take the Krishna away from me.

“Anyway,” I continued, “I’d really appreciate it if you’d give up on trying to recruit me. Look, we’re getting to know each other, and we’ve eaten lunch together now. As long as you keep the rewards coming, I’m glad to keep taking on contract work once in a while.”

“You won’t abandon me?” Serena asked.

“Please don’t cry. You’re killing me right now. This isn’t even an appropriate conversation for our relationship.” I tried to put her off with a glare, but she just pouted. What a handful this woman is.

“If you fell for that, I would’ve clocked you so hard,” Elma grumbled.

“How little do you think of me? Seriously.”

“M-Master Hiro just has a kind soul.” Mimi set a hand on my arm. Tch. I’ll ignore Elma’s quip for now out of respect for Mimi, but I’ll get her back.

“It’s not fair,” Serena whimpered as she leaned against the table. What’s not fair? “It’s not fair! I saw Hiro first! Not fair!” She then stomped her feet and started crying all over again.

“Eugh…” This was getting cringeworthy.

“Excuse me?” Elma shot me a look.

And so did Mimi. “What’s she talking about?”

I sighed. “When I first docked at Tarmein Prime, this Port Authority guy was harassing me. Serena saved me from his clutches.”

“That’s right. I saved you!” Serena hollered. “That means I met Hiro first, but the moment I take my eyes off of him, some other girls snatch him away from me!”

I was utterly perplexed. “No one took me away from you.”

“It shouldn’t matter to you who Hiro decides to be with,” Elma said.

“Agh… You’re right, but…but!” Serena knocked back the rest of her drink and apparently swallowed the rest of her sentence in the process. Lady, you’re already black-out drunk. Please don’t drink any more! “Uuuurgh…” Half-sobbing, she passed out asleep right there on the table.

“What do we do now?” I asked the girls. “She’s out.”

“Should we eat a ton since she’s paying?” Elma smirked.

“As if. She’s the daughter of a marquess, Elma.”

“If her parents knew, we could be in trouble…” Mimi said.

A call on the tablet we’d used for ordering interrupted our conversation.

“Yes?” I said.

“Your reservation will be ending soon. Would you like to extend it?”

“Umm…” Serena was down for the count. I glanced at Elma, who shook her head.

“These rooms are expensive. They’ll overcharge like heck if you extend it.”

While Elma and I put our heads together, Mimi tended to Serena, who didn’t seem able to walk without help. Looks like I’ll be carrying her.

“No extension, thank you,” I said. “Can we pay now?”

“Very well. We await you in the lobby.”

 

***

 

After forking over the exorbitant cost of the meal, we carted Serena back to the Krishna. She was definitely in no state to return to the fleet.

“Good grief,” I said.

I left Serena in our medical pod with Mimi and Elma. She needed to be stripped down for the pod, and after that display back in the restaurant, I certainly wasn’t going to be the one to do it. Besides, a woman like her shouldn’t be seen in her underwear by any man other than her husband.

Instead, I retreated to the cafeteria to treat myself to an uncarbonated soda. Ahh. I feel the liquid joy flowing through me.

What now, though? Surely I couldn’t take Serena’s drunken ramblings seriously. They were just the crazy rantings of a drunk, nothing more. Were those tears even real? She couldn’t seriously be that upset about me being with other women. Nah, not worth my time to worry about it. Maybe it was my sugary, refreshing soda, but resolving to set the whole Serena thing aside lifted a weight off my shoulders. I resolved to move ahead as though nothing had happened. It wasn’t worth bugging her about the meal or what she’d said. I could earn it back through my contract with her anyway.

That was fine for me, but as for Serena… Recruiting me was going to get a lot more embarrassing and difficult after all that.

I shook my head. For real, though. Who gets that drunk at a lunch meeting that they planned? She was like some first-time drinker who didn’t realize how hard the booze would hit until she already had too much. Maybe that’s just how she is outside of work, though.

While I was pondering, Mimi poked her head into the cafeteria. “Serena woke up.”

“Seriously? That was fast.”

“The medical pod sobered her up, apparently.”

“That tech is insane.” Was that the power of futuristic medical technology? Could people here drink all they wanted as long as they had a pod? Come to think of it, Elma does use that pod pretty often. No way… Could it be?

“Should I go in there?”

“Elma is talking with her right now. I think we should wait here.”

“Cool. Want a drink?”

“I’m fine.” Mimi took the chair next to me.

There wasn’t much more I could do about the Serena thing, so I moved on to happier subjects: “That organic stuff was good.”

“Yes, it was!” Mimi chirped. “That was my first time eating fresh vegetables and fruit. Have you eaten it much?”

“Yeah, in my old universe. We didn’t have food cartridges or automatic cookers, so those are really new to me.” I glanced at the Steel Chef 5 enshrined in a corner of the cafeteria. It was kind of incredible how it could make so many flavors from such tiny, strange ingredients. “I don’t know if the organic food in this universe is the same, though.”

“You’re from the third planet of the Solar System, yes? What about the food here is different?” Mimi asked, cocking her head.

Mimi knew little beyond the fact that I was from Earth and that I had been blown here during a hyperdrive accident. I’d left out some of the weirder details of my ending up here.

“Oh, yeah,” I said. “Back where I’m from, when they say ‘organic’ food, they mean that you don’t use pesticides or chemical fertilizers on the crops while you grow it. I don’t know if that restaurant does the same thing or not.”

“Wow. Isn’t that an inefficient process?”

“Yeah, but they say it’s tastier and better for you. Not that I would know if they were right or not. They were all luxury foods, so I hadn’t eaten much of it.” Back home, I’d loved my junk food and soda too much to bother with the fancy organic stuff. “What did you like from the meal, Mimi?”

“I liked the seafood salad. The crunchy veggies, the tender shrimp and squid, and the dressing on top!” She clapped her hands together, eyes sparkling. Mimi always looked most excited when she talked about food.

“Hey, even I can make seafood salad as long as we’ve got the right ingredients.” The recipe was simple enough, but getting veggies, mixed seafood, vinegar, oil, and all the other condiments would be tricky.

“Really?!” Mimi leaned in. Hey, now. Calm down.

“Again, as long as I have the ingredients. I used to live alone, so I learned to cook a little. But in this universe, ingredients are hard to get. And we don’t even have a kitchen. Come to think of it, wasn’t there an all-in-one cooking set back at the gadget shop?” I’d ignored it at the time, but maybe I should’ve bought it.

“Let’s go get one some time! I’ll look up places that sell them!” Mimi grabbed my hands, squeezing tight.

“S-sure.”

We’d had salads before, but this seafood salad was really hyping Mimi up. I hope my cooking doesn’t let her down after all this build-up.

We were still working out the details of our seafood salad adventure when Elma entered the cafeteria with a perfectly sober Serena in tow. The lieutenant commander was neat and tidy once more, all the ruddiness washed out of her complexion.

“Sorry for the wait,” Elma said. “The princess has awoken.”

“Guess she didn’t need a prince’s kiss, after all,” I joked.

“Oh? Are you disappointed?” Elma asked me.

“I’m not much of a prince, really.” I shrugged, but that joke had Serena covering her face, red all the way to the tips of her ears. She wouldn’t live this down any time soon. “Must suck to be a boss. But hey, it probably felt good to blow off some steam, yeah?”

“I am deeply sorry for what happened,” Serena said.

“Don’t worry about it,” I said. “The food was good, and we’d never have gone there without you inviting us. If you’re that sorry, maybe you could show us around more.”

Hopefully, playing tour guide would make Serena feel like we’d evened the score. The thought of her feeling indebted to me chilled me to my core.

“V-very well. I’ll be sure to send you a referral.”

“Big thanks. Want us to escort you to your ship?” I said.

“O-oh, no, thank you. Um…”

“I know you’ve got a lot on your plate. For all intents and purposes, though, I heard nothing. We had some good food, we drank together, and we had a good time. Cool?”

“Thank you for your consideration.” Serena bid us farewell with curt little nods and hurried off the Krishna, still red as a beet.

“It must be hard to be a woman in the military,” Mimi murmured.

 

***

 

Other pirate hunting excursions…did not go as smoothly as the first.

“They’re not biting, are they?” Serena said.

“Figures.”

For a whole week, pirates failed to take the bait. They must have figured out the trick and told one another about it. It only took a couple obliterated pirate groups for the rest to get the message.

“What now?” I asked. “Do we try the thing?”

“The thing” was a half-measure that involved changing the ship IDs and names of Serena’s crew. Once we took care of that, we could repaint the bait ship, and then our little trap would work again. Serena had the authority and skill to manage the logistics of the plan.

In fact, her adept handling of matters like that had already gotten recognized by the higher-ups in the Imperial Fleet. That bait ship even got written off as a work expense, and she was given leeway to buy new bait ships on the fleet’s dime.

“That would work, but perhaps we should cut them off at the source?” Serena said.

“Fair,” I said. “Considering how many we’ve killed off so far, they might be running out of guys.”

We’d taken out more than 200 pirates with our bait-and-switch tactic. In a game world, they might have just kept coming, but here in reality, they weren’t so keen on continuing to take such huge losses.

Still, despite their limited manpower here, space pirates might’ve actually been endless after all—across the galaxy as a whole, that is. Even a harsh culling would only really push them to retreat to a base and regroup. If you took down a base, they could still scatter and reform later, even if they had some trouble refueling and doing maintenance for a short time.

“Let’s crush them,” Serena declared. We’d gleaned the location of a nearby pirate base from the ships we’d destroyed here. Seemed Serena was ready to pounce.

“How should we prepare?” I asked. “Do we set up another cage?”

“Surround and destroy,” she said. “That’s the key to victory. Let’s petition the mercenary guild for aid as well.”

I was glad she was willing to ask for help. Choosing the safer option might mean less glory for her, but it also meant a more secure victory with fewer losses. It took a good leader to make that kind of choice.

“What should I do, then?”

“I’ll have you help, of course. Though you will be working under the same conditions as other mercenaries.”

“Depends on the conditions.” I wasn’t going to accept that easily. I had to stand my ground and let her know I could still refuse a raw deal. If I did mercenary work outside of this contract, I’d want different rewards and compensation as well.

“You’re a careful one.” Serena grinned wryly. “If we wanted to take them out right now, what sort of forces would we need?”

“To exterminate them? Well, you would need to add at least thirty corvettes to our current force as a front line. Fifty if you want to be certain, though.”

Destroying a pirate base was simple enough. They were hardly even bases, more like minor supply stations and outposts. Serena’s current squad certainly had the firepower to get the job done. We wouldn’t even have to get all that close, thanks to our superior range.

But extermination was different. The moment they were attacked, the pirates would load up their loot and flee in all directions. To prevent that, you needed to infiltrate with a hefty front line—thirty to fifty ships would do. Serena’s squad simply didn’t have enough ships for that. Hence the need for those corvettes to serve as a front line. Fast and decently strong, corvettes were great for scouting and adaptability. No other ship was as good at getting up close and personal.

It was the classic military split: those who loved the big guns like battleships and cruisers, and those who savored the mobility, responsiveness, and battlefield control of corvettes and destroyers.

“It will be extremely difficult to procure that many corvettes for my squad,” Serena noted.

“Sure. We can just subcontract the extras like before, though. That’s what the merc guild is for, after all.”

“Indeed.” Serena rubbed her chin in thought, likely calculating exactly how many more troops she could add to the Pirate Hunting Unit. “We have the data. I’ll make an official request to army headquarters.”