Chapter 9: Pursuers Continue to Pursue

Chapter 9:
Pursuers Continue to Pursue

 

TODAY WAS LOVELY. The sky wasn’t perfectly clear, but the clouds were fluffy and white, with no sign of rain in sight. Yep, it was the perfect day for rock fishing.

“Wh-whoa?! I-I think I have a bite!” Mimi began to panic, fishing rod in hand. It seemed she had the first nibble of the day.

“Calmly reel it in. The line won’t break that easily, right?”

“Correct. It is made to withstand up to 500 kilograms, so you have no need to worry,” the custom Maidroid said, backing me up. The lines looked normal, but they were super strong. What is this, metal wire?

“W-wow, look! There it is! What should I do?!” Mimi nimbly reeled in a fish I’d never seen before.

At the very least, it didn’t have legs or the upper body of a cat… I shuddered. Thank God.

“Leave it to me.” The custom Maidroid swiftly approached the floundering fish and put it into a bucket of seawater. The fish was black and reminded me of sea bream. It would be good boiled or cut into sashimi.

“Mei, thank you!” Mimi said.

“Do not mention it.” Mei bowed.

Three days had passed since she had shown up. Mimi had complained that “custom Maidroid” was too much to say every time, and after some discussion with Elma and Chris, they all decided to name her Mei. Anyone could tell you that giving something a name makes you love it all the more, but I couldn’t complain now. Despite growling and being mean when they first met, Mimi had taken to the Maidroid, and even Elma seemed sweeter to her as well. What kind of negotiation tactics did she use, I wonder?

Chris had remained totally neutral to her the whole time, but she was probably used to servants.

“Oh! I’ve got one too,” Elma said.

“You’ve got this, Elma!” Chris, who was spectating, cheered her on. She was too small for a rod and wasn’t fond of live fish anyway.

And me? Hell yeah, I’m fishing. I’m just not even getting a nibble! Why is that?

Suddenly, Mei looked up into the sky.

I followed her gaze, but only saw the usual. What’s going on?

“There is an emergency at hand. Everyone, evacuate!”

“Bwuh?” I was confused, but I doubted Mei would joke about something so serious, so I acted swiftly. “Leave everything behind and get to the Krishna, now!”

“Huh?” Mimi gasped. “Oh, okay!”

Elma reacted quickly. “Gotcha. Everyone, hurry!”

“Yes, sir!”

The girls threw their rods aside. I did the same and reached for my holstered laser gun. Good thing I brought it just in case. Elma had a hand on her gun too. Mimi hadn’t brought a weapon, but I was worried about her misfiring, so that was okay.

“What’s the emergency?” I asked Mei as we ran.

I kept my laser gun in hand to be prepared for the worst, ready to undo the safety at any time.

“It is a large-scale pirate attack,” said Mei. She spoke evenly and with perfect clarity despite sprinting—I mean, she was a machine—and explained the circumstances as calmly as possible. “There are over a hundred ships. I have confirmed large craft among them. They also have asteroids with thrusters attached to attack the planet.”

“Whoa.” I shivered. “You didn’t notice that asteroid thing before?” I asked Elma.

“I don’t know how they did it, but they did it well,” she answered. “They must have fitted the asteroids with FTL drives and shields and brought them along.”

“Would they do something that expensive?”

“If they have a wealthy patron to foot the bill, then why not?”

A wealthy patron, huh? This is Chris’s uncle’s doing, then.

“The space pirates are attacking our orbital defense platform,” the Maidroid continued. “The meteorite attack is headed for the Accumulation and Assembly Site on the equator, so there is no direct danger to us—no, something is descending now.”

I followed Mei’s gaze again and saw a bunch of fireballs coming this way at jaw-dropping speed. Laser cannons jutted out of the sea and attacked, but there were too many. Even the mountain we had climbed the other day had lasers flying from it, but some fireballs got through and smashed into the island. None were landing near us, but the impacts shook the ground. They must’ve hit somewhere around the lodge.

“Looks like they weren’t reactive munitions,” I said.

“Stop! You’re gonna jinx us!” Elma groaned, utterly annoyed.

If those had been reactive missiles or cannonballs instead of fireballs, the island would’ve been blown away. The silver lining was that we weren’t in the lodge, where we would have died on impact.

“What’s with the fireballs?”

“Investigating…” Mei paused. “Movement confirmed. They are battle robots.”

“Eugh.”

“Wow…”

Elma and I both groaned at once. Battle robots were as varied as could be, but the best of them were impossible for humans to take down one on one. They were tough, accurate, and skilled in multiple forms of combat. I could fight them with my power armor on, but not without it. I hoped they weren’t the worst kind, but I doubted Chris’s uncle would take it easy on us.

“The island’s defensive forces are fighting them,” Mei announced. “Hide yourselves—a second wave is coming.”

“There they are!” I cried.

As we left the rocks and emerged on the beach, more fireballs came flying from another direction. Counter-lasers were fired, but the sheer amount of fireballs made it impossible to stop them all. One of them came toward us.

“Gah, here it comes. Everyone, get down!”

“Eep?!”

I grabbed Mimi and dove onto the sand. Elma and Mei covered Chris.

The fireball landed between the lodge and beach with an earthshaking boom. It sprayed pebbles and sand everywhere—or at least, it felt that way.

Once the shaking subsided, I looked up and saw a strange stake stabbed into the ground. It had hemispherical protrusions that were melting under laser fire. I’d never seen anything like it before. Now that the laser had glanced off of it, the protrusions were mostly melted.

“Is everyone okay?” I asked.

“I-I think so?” Mimi said.

“I don’t think I’m hurt,” Elma added.

Chris said, “I believe I’m okay too.”

“Okay, let’s get to the Krishna—”

“Wait… Hiro, shoot!” Elma readied her laser gun as the hemispherical protrusions fell off of the stake, revealing spheres.

Spheres, eh? I see…

As the spherical things began to change shape, I pointed my laser gun and fired away—at maximum power, of course. Elma fired mercilessly as well, and we destroyed the things before they could finish transforming.

What? It’s cowardly to shoot an enemy during their transformation? Who cares?!

“Was that a battle robot?”

“Probably,” Elma answered. “Are the others malfunctioning? It’s a good thing our lasers were enough to take that one down.”

“For sure.” If our handheld laser guns hadn’t been able to hurt it, we would have been done for. But it took twenty shots between us to kill it, so they had good resistance. We’d have to be careful. “Let’s check ourselves for injuries and then rush to the Krishna,” I said, firing off my laser gun at the remaining hemisphere to finish it off. I swapped out the empty energy pack for a full one. “Elma, how many energy packs you got?”

“Two. You?”

“Four for me. Want one?”

“I’m fine. I think it’s better if you have more ammo.” Elma shook her head and finished reloading.

I could fire faster than her, so that made sense. “Sure thing. Mimi, Chris, Mei! Let’s go!”

“Y-yes, sir!”

“Understood.”

“Very well. Both of you, stay behind me.” Mei stood to cover Mimi and Chris, who couldn’t fight. If her body was made to my specifications, then she could easily make it to the ship. But maybe I’d asked for too much.

Watching our surroundings, we headed to the Krishna. Battle robots continued to fall from the sky. I hoped the island’s defense systems could take care of us.

 

***

 

Hey! It’s your boy again, Captain Hiro.

After obliterating the battle robot that landed on the beach, we made it to the lodge. However, it was in a tragic state. The windows were shattered from the earlier quakes, and stray bullets—lasers?—had burned and destroyed the walls. Despite the sorry state it was in, it would be helpful enough as cover, so we hid ourselves beside it.

What? Shouldn’t we be heading to the Krishna? Well, yes. If only we could.

“I don’t see us getting in there…” Elma muttered.

“We would die,” Mimi agreed.

“It’s suicidal,” Chris said.

“Yes. It is beyond dangerous.”

As we hid in the shrubbery next to the lodge, an intense battle unfolded before us: the island’s defense system versus battle robots unfolding from their spherical form.

The bottom halves of the enemy robots each divided into three legs, and the upper bodies sprouted four arms, each shooting lasers. Quite the powerful machines.

Meanwhile, the island’s…unique defense forces advanced. There were coconut crabs like two-meter boulders, mechanical gorillas and dogs, laser turrets emerging from the ground, Maidroids with laser rifles… Oh, the gorilla just charged in and destroyed some enemy robots. Monkey strong.

“Seriously, Chris. Your uncle can’t do all this and still avoid the authorities, right?”

“I dunno,” Elma answered instead. “They might be avoiding tracking somehow. They could pay the pirates using Rare Metal alone instead of Ener, and they might even get their battle robots under the table. That could be the reason they didn’t use reactive weapons.”

“Why, though?” Mimi asked.

“The Empire wouldn’t sit by and let anyone throw reactive weapons at a resort planet. A thorough investigation might catch them, so they’re fighting the hardest they can while still protecting themselves.”

“Is the Empire that wary of reactive weapons?” I wondered aloud. “Awfully lax on regulating them, if so.”

I’d used anti-ship torpedoes with reactive warheads on the Belbellum Federation back during the skirmish, but I was able to resupply them with minor difficulties.

“There aren’t that many mercs, after all. They’re keeping an eye on you, don’t worry.”

“Really? Maybe so.” If they regulated weapons, they might as well regulate ships, since they could attack stations and colonies. I was suddenly curious as to how mercenaries had become such an accepted part of this universe.

“Master Hiro, is the Krishna okay?” Mimi asked, worried.

I’d be worried about that too.

“It is,” I assured her. “I activated the shields remotely using my tablet, so it should be fine. Maybe I should’ve had Elma stay back in the ship, though.”

“Hindsight is twenty-twenty. We never could’ve expected them to break through the planet’s defenses and attack us directly,” Elma said.

Mei stooped forward, bowing in the brush. “I am deeply sorry for my inability to keep you all safe.”

“Eh, it’s more our fault for bringing trouble to you.” I shrugged. Are we gonna be on the hook to pay for the damages? Ugh… “For now, let’s handle covering fire. Keep yourselves hidden.”

I poked my upper half out of the shrub, readied my laser gun, and held my breath. Time seemed to slow down around me. I set the sight of my laser on the enemy robots and fired away. Though everything else was slow, my lasers still moved at almost the speed of light. One, two, three, four, five shots landed by the time the robot’s arms pointed my way.

“Hmph!” I fired twice at one of its barrels. My lasers caused an explosion inside its arm, blowing half of it away.

Wow. So those barrels are weak points, huh?

I needed to breathe, so I hid again and gasped. “Haah! Haah, haah…”

“Master Hiro…”

“I’m fine.”

After recovering, I leaned out the side of the shrub and held my breath again, firing aggressively at the robots’ weapon arms. Once I trimmed their offense, the defense forces would be able to finish them off.

I shot two lasers at each barrel, lowering the enemy robots’ firepower. Seeing that they were weakened, our defense robots began a fierce counterattack. The ones resembling coconut crabs closed in with incredible speed, slapping, smashing, and cutting the enemy with their scary pincers. The gorilla robots tackled foes, beating, beating, and beating them with their arms. Robotic hunting dogs crowded around the enemies, biting down and exploding. What? Exploding?! Are they suicide-bomber weapons?! That’s insane!

Once the offense was broken, it was all over. Enemy robots were quickly disposed of, and the skirmish was over.

“Hounds are searching for enemies now,” Mei told us. “Please wait until I have ensured our safety.”

“Okay.”

The surviving hunting dogs scattered in all directions. They were skeletal in nature, holding no more parts than necessary. The self-destructing devices were too scary for me.

It seemed the crabs and gorillas were guarding us. The crabs’ shells appeared to be made of rock. What strange machines. The gorilla robots’ fur was singed, showing the metal underneath. They must’ve taken laser fire. Were they camouflaged as real gorillas in the forest? Why? Oh, they must be managing the forest. What about the crabs, though? Are they trimming trees or something? This island is just full of mysteries.

After a while, we got the all-clear and headed to the Krishna. The Maidroids, crabs, and gorillas followed us as guards. I liked the crabs the most. They were huge. Like, big enough that I had to look up at them. I wanted to ride one so bad.

“I’m glad we were able to get to the Krishna,” I sighed. Mimi, Elma, Chris, Mei, and I climbed up the ladder and boarded the ship.

“Agreed,” said Mimi. “What a relief.”

“Sorry I dragged you all into this…” Chris slumped down dejectedly. This was really getting to her.

“You don’t have to worry about it, okay?” Elma shrugged. “We’re not protecting you out of the goodness of our hearts, anyway.”

“Wow, Elma. Be a little nicer.”

Elma glared at me angrily.

That ain’t gonna work! I know you’re just being mean to uphold your mercenary dignity! You’re cute, though, like a child trying desperately to look tall by standing on their tiptoes.

“What do we do now?” Mimi asked.

“That’s a tough question, babe. I doubt we can get away easily while the pirates are having it out with the defense system, right?”

“Don’t even try it,” Elma said. “We should hole up in the Krishna until this all calms down. If we have to, we can find a way to leave.”

Elma was referring to the scenario in which Cierra III’s defensive platform failed and those space pirates started rampaging through the planet. Alternatively, their meteorite attack might hit the material storage facility and put the planet itself in danger.

“How are things looking?” I asked Mei.

“It is not going well,” she answered, tone grim. “We have requested emergency aid from the Imperial Fleet, but the enemy is blocking our communications, so we have yet to receive a response. Furthermore, small pirate craft have begun descending on the planet, while their large craft are performing orbital bombardment on our ground-based interception facilities.”

“Whoa, that’s really not good. Mimi and Elma, be ready to launch at a moment’s notice.”

“Gotcha,” Elma replied. “What about Chris?”

“Hmm… Mei, can you support operations?”

“Yes. I have the necessary assets installed.”

“Then sit in the sub-operator’s chair. Chris, we have a spare seat; you can sit there.”

“Yes, sir.”

We rehydrated and chatted a bit before heading to the cockpit. Even the Krishna wouldn’t survive orbital fire from a large craft, so we needed to be ready.

Just as we reached the cockpit, the Krishna shook. Or rather, the ground below it shook.

“Whoa!” I cried.

“Eep?!” Chris squeaked.

“Their orbital fire is coming closer to this island,” Mei informed us. “Their small craft are beginning to gather as well.”

“It seems my uncle bankrolled this, after all.”

“We guessed that already. Let’s get this ship on the road!” Elma demanded.

“Right. Mimi, get Chris to the spare seat.”

“Okay!”

Mimi took care of Chris while Elma and I jumped into our seats.

“I’m gonna launch,” I told Elma. “Take care of the checks while I do.”

“Understood. Shifting main generator from standby to battle mode.”

“Sorry for the wait!” Mimi ran back to her chair.

“Okay. Time for liftoff!” After confirming Mimi was in her seat, I lifted the ship directly upward. The thrusters that handled attitude control in space worked as vertical liftoff thrusters while on the surface. “Mimi, stay focused on the radar. That goes double for anything that comes in from outer space.”

“Such as orbital bombardment?”

“Nah. Any pirates who come for us will be coming from above. Based on what Mei said, they’ll be flooding in. Though yeah, we do want to avoid bombardment.”

I didn’t expect anything to be able to hit us directly, as the Krishna was agile, and orbital bombardments typically used kinetic weapons meant to target buildings rather than ships. However, that didn’t mean they weren’t going to use lasers. Super-high-output lasers like the Krishna’s heavy lasers wouldn’t attenuate much in the atmosphere, so a cruiser with equal power would easily be able to attack us from orbit with a laser cannon.

But I didn’t think space pirate equipment would be that dangerous. As long as they didn’t have the fleet’s cruisers, anyway.

“Hiro, do you have experience fighting in gravity?” Elma asked.

“Not really, but it’s not my first time.”

“Hmm. Don’t do anything too dangerous, okay?”

“I can’t make any promises.” The space pirates wouldn’t be used to fighting in gravity either, and I would be a fool not to take advantage of that.

“There are several enemies at ten o’clock, coming in at a high altitude!” Mimi informed me.

“They waste no time, huh? Elma, you take care of subsystems.”

“Aye-aye.”

I blasted the main thrusters, ascending rapidly. The g-forces of our acceleration were more intense than usual, probably due to the planet’s gravity and atmosphere.

“Huff, huff…!” Chris hyperventilated behind me, but I couldn’t take care of her during a battle.

“They’re coming!” Mimi screamed.

“Initiative wins the day!” I turned the ship to the approaching pirates and fired all four of my heavy lasers at them as they charged into the atmosphere.

“Wargh?! A-an ambush?!” Unfortunately for him, the pirate at the front exploded from only one volley. Given how big the explosion was, he was dead meat.

“There’s more!” Mimi said.

“Enemy ships are taking evasive maneuvers!” Elma added.

“I’ll grind ’em down as best I can.”

I single-mindedly fought off the descending pirate ships. They weren’t total idiots. Once they knew the Krishna was waiting, they changed course and tried to evade my attacks. However, they were coming in at ballistic trajectory, and changing their angle so suddenly would be dangerous.

“Idiots! Don’t change your angle, or you’ll mess up your landing!” an enemy said over the comm.

“I’m not gonna dive into that cannon fire just to die! How about you go in there?!” one of his buddies snapped back.

Elma chuckled. “That’s an awful fight they’re having.”

“Shame they’re all gonna die either way.” I wasn’t going to let a single one get away, and Milo wasn’t about to let them stomp all over its planet.

“Cannon fire is coming from beyond orbit!” Mimi told me.

“Whoops.”

While I fought off the sporadic pirate charges, the enemy’s large craft started bombarding us with kinetic weapons from orbit. They were easy to dodge if you knew they were coming, and even if they hit, I figured they wouldn’t break my shields. Still, there was always a chance they would blow away the shields and fling us into the ocean, so I was forced to start dodging.

“This does make it harder to fight back…”

“There is no other way. We do not want to get hit.”

Elma and Mei were cool-headed, but once I started avoiding the orbital bombardment, Mimi and Chris went quiet. Were they petrified? Shaking? I couldn’t look around in the middle of battle.

“E-excuse me,” Mimi stammered. “The enemies who landed are starting to gather and come this way.”

“Where’s the closest one?” I asked.

“The first one we’ll run into is ahead of the starboard bow, but they’ll come from all directions, one after another.”

“Gotcha. Our first priority is dealing with the ones coming right at us.”

More pirates continued to approach at ballistic trajectory. Dealing with the ones who veered off would have to wait.

“We’ve definitely got our pick of them,” Elma said, satisfied by the bounty before us.

“Yeah. Shame their bounties all kinda suck individually, though.”

“Y-you two are awfully composed…” Chris shuddered.

“This bombardment isn’t bad. I’ll take it over flying around in an asteroid belt any day.”

“Totally,” Elma agreed.

“Come to think of it, I would too,” Mimi said.

“Umm…?” Chris seemed much less convinced.

It’s true, though. Kinetic orbital bombardment was dangerous and all, but it was only coming from three ships. Weaving through an asteroid belt would be far more difficult and dangerous.

Pirates swarmed in from all directions, dodging my attacks. They screamed through the wide-range communications as they all closed in.

“Dammit! Shoot him down, already!”

“That incentive bonus is gonna be mine!”

“Jeez,” I said with a chuckle. “An incentive bonus?”

“How much did they pay for this?” Elma groaned. “Deploying chaff!”

“I dunno, but seeing as they keep coming no matter how many I swat down, it must be a lot.” I accelerated hard, taking their attacks with my shields before rocketing up to a higher altitude.

More pirates screamed through the comms.

“They’re running! Catch ’em!”

“Toss some heat-seeking missiles at ’em!”

A shrill alarm went off as seeker missiles approached the Krishna from behind.

“Elma. On my signal, engage emergency cooling and deploy flares.”

“Aye-aye. You wanna do it when we go into the clouds, right?”

“Exactly… Now!”

The Krishna plunged into a thick cloud, and Elma activated the ship’s emergency cooling at the same time she launched flares. Having lost their targeted heat source, the seeker missiles closed in on the flares and exploded behind us.

“Did we get ’em?!” one pirate yelled.

No, idiot, I wanted to say, but I held my tongue and flew through the cloud, using my attitude control thrusters to turn the ship along the way and keep it hidden. Now, the Krishna was flying backward.

“You’re pretty good under gravity,” Elma said.

“Spaceships aren’t designed with aerodynamics in mind, but as long as I’m careful, it’s not too bad.” The feel of a ship changed a lot based on air resistance and gravity, so if you didn’t pay attention, you could slam into the ground or the ocean.

“We didn’t get ’em!” one pirate bellowed, mad that I’d gotten away.

“Then I’ve still got a chance!”

Pirates burst through the clouds in pursuit, but I showered them with heavy laser fire.

“Don’t leave the clouds! He’ll shoot you!”

“Gah?! Don’t just stop either! He knows you’re there anyway!”

Oh? Looks like some of these pirates have actual brains. I couldn’t see their ships with photosensors, but my other sensors made it all too clear where they were. Even heavy lasers would attenuate a little inside the clouds, but as long as I kept shooting, I could make up for—

Fyoom! Kinetic bombardment from orbit pierced through all the crowding pirates, blowing them and the clouds away. Holy crap, are you kidding me?!

“Nooo!” I screamed. “My bounties!”

“What?! That’s what you’re worried about?!” Chris sounded appalled for some reason, but I didn’t have it in me to care.

I hadn’t thought the pirates were stupid enough to get hit by orbital bombardment. I have to finish them off before more of them die!

“Hiro, don’t get greedy and do something stupid,” Elma warned me.

“Don’t tell me what I already know. I’m not that dumb.” I cleanly took down each pirate ship in quick succession while they panicked at the sudden turn of events. The bombardment continued, so I had to watch for anything falling from above.

“He’s certainly overpowering them,” Chris commented.

“He would never lose to pirates,” Mimi said proudly.

The situation was shifting from a counterstrike to cleanup work. The pirates had lost their chain of command thanks to the orbital strike, so now, they were just charging around like maniacs, trying to hit me, or colliding with one another in their panic. Some were even shooting heat-seeking missiles too close to their allies and taking them out. That’s what happens when you use them too close to your pals, dummy! They literally seek out heat! There was no way for us to lose.

“Are we not going to deal with the enemies bombarding us from orbit?” Chris asked.

I smirked. “Oh, those little guys? You have to maintain a specific orbit to keep yourself out of the planet’s gravitational pull, so if we go too close, it’d be really easy for them to bombard us.”

“Basically, you don’t want the high ground here,” Elma summarized. “But can’t the Krishna’s heavy lasers fight back?”

“They’re strong, but they don’t exactly reach far. My ship isn’t really suited for long-range attacks.” My lasers had high output, but the oscillator was just too small for long-ranged fighting. Maybe it could work as a last-ditch effort, but I hoped it wouldn’t come to that. “I’d prefer if Milo could deal with the big guys for us… Mei, how’s it looking?”

Mei answered calmly from the sub-operator’s seat. “Our Accumulation and Assembly Site on the equator will soon begin mass driver–powered attacks. We have also successfully nullified their jamming device. The Imperial Fleet stationed in this system are heading this way.”

It would be perfect if Milo could take down the large craft using the mass driver. And even if not, the fleet would be here soon enough. I guess we just have to smack down the rest of the little guys.

“Mass driver bombardment has begun,” Mei announced. “Striking in five, four, three, two, one…now.” At the end of her countdown, I saw a flash of light in the distance. “Direct hit confirmed. Second and third shots incoming…and striking.”

Pow pow! Two more flashes of light. The mass driver’s fire must have sunk all three of the large ships. Seriously—they all went down with one hit and they couldn’t even dodge it? Note to self: Do not underestimate the mass driver.

“Well, let’s just clean up the garbage—” I started but was interrupted.

“I will deal with them as well.”

“Something is coming at us at ballistic trajectory!” Mimi yelled.

Enemy reinforcements?! I tensed up for a moment, but then I realized they were likely on our side. “They must be reinforcements from Milo, right?” I asked Mei.

“Yes. Less reinforcements and more of an attack, however.”

“An attack?” I repeated, just as something exploded above us.

“Waaaargh?!”

“Wh-what’s going on?!”

“O-our shields!”

Whatever it was had taken out the pirates’ ships but left the Krishna untouched.

“That was a smart bomb,” Mei explained. “Milo directly controls the bombs’ trajectory and time of explosion.”

Supermassive, rapid-fire smart bombs exploded all around, stripping pirate ships of their shields and blowing them to smithereens. Those were dangerous weapons. Even the Krishna would be in danger if I wasn’t careful. While I shuddered in terror, a wide-field communication came in.

“This is the Imperial Fleet’s Pirate Hunting Unit. Cease all hostilities at once. By the name of His Imperial Majesty, we will permit no more violence.”

I guess the cavalry has arrived, but wait— “The Pirate Hunting Unit…” I repeated.

“It’s her, isn’t it?” Mimi shuddered.

“Did she come here just to chase you, Hiro? She’s tenacious, I’ll give her that.”

“Um?” Chris alone seemed confused as we all shivered at what was to come.

 

***

 

“Achoo!”

“Lieutenant Commander, are you sick?”

“No, I’m perfectly fine. That sneeze caught me rather off guard. Why do I feel as though I’m being slandered right now…?”

“Maybe you need a check-up.”

“Hmm, perhaps. My, I didn’t expect this to come up so soon. This is a good opportunity, so let us be as thorough as possible.”

“Yes, ma’am!”