by J Palliser
After kissing and holding, touching and exploring, loving each other, they finally fell asleep in each other's arms.
*** As they both reported for duty in the morning, Jacen and Delaara both noticed that they'd shown up together, and were holding hands. Gem's face was beaming, and Alexei was smiling contentedly.
Rash saw them coming and grinned. "Good, now that Razor and Gem are here, we're going to go over exactly what happened during the battle, yesterday. As you all know, Strike Wing Blue lost four fighters. We lost one, but not due to anyone's fault. A proximity fused torpedo is deadly to a starfighter, especially flying in formation." He paused. "To digress for a moment, Gem, it was not your fault yesterday. It wasn't anyone's fault. Are we clear?"
Jenny smiled. "Clear, sir," she said to Rash. "Well, I'm glad someone around here finally got happy," he grinned and watched as Alexei and Jenny both blushed. "Anyhow, back to business," he said as the low chuckles died down. "Bravo Flight did a great job yesterday. My boys and girl turned that fuckin' battleship into scrap metal! We accounted for a combined sixteen kills, including the battle cruiser, and I couldn't be prouder of you all. Razor got three solos, and was in on the battleship. Zee," he indicated Ensign Stra'tal, the Arcadian girl in his flight, "accounted for two solos, bringing her to Ace status. Congrats, Zee!" With that, he took his seat by his team.
Bouncer got up and gave his account. They hadn't lost anyone, and had accounted for twelve kills as a unit, including a Raider-class light cruiser.
Finally, Cobalt got up and let everyone know how proud he was with all of them. "Seriously, we're the best damn Squadron in Kriegsmarine. We pull together and do what we have to do. We fight as one. Gem, that torpedo was fired point-blank, and we couldn't have avoided it if we'd tried. I reviewed the battle footage last night. You won't be gigged for the loss of your Valkyrie." Jacen smiled and nodded to her. She visibly let out a sigh of relief and smiled. "Now we need to get some simulator reps in. Bouncer, your crew gets first hour."
"Roger that, boss." Bouncer grinned and grabbed his guys to hit the simulator. "Valkyries again today, guys," he said as they entered the holo-simulator.
As the other flights were sitting around talking. Zee went and sat next to Gem. "So? How was he?" She whispered and was grinning ear to ear at her friend.
"He's amazing," Jenny whispered back with a smile on her face. "He made me feel so good last night!"
Stra'tal hugged Jenny. "I'm so happy you found someone, and he's really cute!"
She'd said that a bit too loud, and Rash busted up laughing. "You hear that, Razor? You're really cute!" Alexei laughed at that. "If she says so," he smiled warmly at Gem, who smiled warmly back with a wink. Stra'tal was blushing a deep red.
The comm came up. " All Blue and Red pilots, the debris in the forward flight hangar has been cleared. Please move your fighters from aft flight deck immediately. Thank you."
The Condors cheered as the announcement was made. "Good", said Rash. "I was getting sick of parking in a handicapped spot." That was what he called the maintenance pads with the circular icon painted on them.
Zee and Gem had moved away a bit and were talking animatedly about Razor, it seemed. Zee had an amazed expression on her face at one point, then smiled with her eyes half closed as she imagined whatever it was that Gem had told her.
Rash said to Razor "It looks like you made quite an impression. Gem and Zee have been friends for years, so don't worry. Whatever Jenny tells her won't go beyond the two of them."
"I'm not worried. We have a date tonight on the holo-deck." Alexei smiled. "Good. I'm glad you're not a one-night wonder. She deserves better than that." Rash was proud of his new wingman.
"Yes she does, Rash. I care for her very much." Alexei felt more than a caring for her. He knew he was falling in love, and it felt good.
***
"By the moons," said Stra'tal. "Jenny, if I'd known that about him, I would have made a move myself!" She giggled. "He's not that kind of guy, Zee!" Jenny was glad they'd moved away from the guys to have their chat. "He made sure that I came first, and made sure I was completely satisfied. He's not the type to hit and run."
"Well, then he's unlike any Drac I've been with. Now I'm jealous!" She giggled again. Ensign Stra'tal had a reputation that started in the Academy as being a bit of a slut. She rarely spent the night with the same man twice, but she also didn't sleep with every man who came along. She picked and chose her night mates.
She'd spent two years trying to get Gem to come out of her shell and just enjoy the men around her, but it had seemed like a lost cause. Now, Jenny had found a man with honor and integrity, and it seemed like things were finally turning around for her.
"He was worth waiting for," said Jenny finally, looking across the hangar to where Alexei was talking to Rash. "Well, you have your ways, and I have mine. I wonder if Bouncer has been with an Arcadian before," she wondered out loud.
Jenny laughed at her friend. "You're incorrigible!" "You say ' incorrigible', I say 'friendly'." She winked and grinned. "I just wish I'd gotten my hands on Rash before the Captain did," she pouted.
"If you had, you'd have dumped him the next day, Zee," said Jenny with a smirk. "Not according to the scuttlebutt I've been hearing. They were together for almost six months before anyone found out! And if he can satisfy her..." Stra'tal let her mind go filthy with thoughts of what he could have done to her.
Jenny giggled. "I'd heard the same thing. The amazing part is that he never bragged about it!" Rash had a reputation as a ladies' man at one point, but hadn't hit on any of the female pilots or crew-members since the night he'd been promoted and slapped silly by Captain Weiss. Jenny realized that was when the affair had started. "It was the night of his promotion to Lieutenant," she said to Zee. "What was?" The blue girl asked.
"When he started sleeping with Rachel," said Jenny. "Don't you remember her leaning in close and saying something in his ear before he left the Officer's Lounge that night?"
Stra'tal thought about it. "Now that you mention it, yeah. Then she left shortly afterward, claiming it had been a long day and she needed sleep. Ha! She was fucking him that night!" They both giggled, not realizing that Rash and Alexei were right behind them.
"Yep, that was the night, ladies," said Rash with a grin.
"Oh, shit!" Stra'tal turned, embarrassed and blushing.
"Don't worry about it. I'm surprised that nobody figured it out before now." Rash laughed.
"How long were you two standing there", asked Jenny, wide eyed. Alexei said "From the ' scuttlebutt' comment." He smiled and moved forward, kissing Jenny sweetly. She grinned and bit her lower lip after they broke the kiss.
Stra'tal said "Oh, I'm not going to hear the end of this, am I?"
"Well, as long as the Captain doesn't find out, I think you're safe," said Rash, chuckling at his pilot's discomfort. "I'm doomed," said Stra'tal, holding her face in her hands. "Oh, shush. Nobody here is going to tell her about your latent desires for me," said Rash with a grin. "Honestly, I'm flattered. Zee, if I wasn't happily in love and married, I might have been interested."
She looked up with a smile. "Thanks, boss."
"No problem. Now, Gem, go tell Arrow that we need him here. We're up next in the simulator."
"You got it, Rash", said Jenny as she walked away towards where Alpha was talking to each other and Roy 'Arrow' Hobbs.
13
Twelve
As Bravo took over the simulator, Delaara turned to Jenny and said "So, I saw you and Zee talking about Alexei. I think he likes you even more than he lets on."
"I think so too, Commander. I love him." She smiled at her Squadron executive officer. "He's just as scared of being hurt as you are, Gem." Delaara could read people. It was in her job description as a Commanding Officer of an entire fighter wing back with the CIF.
"He's a strong man, but a very gentle lover," said Gem in a whisper. "I love the way he makes me feel."
"Good. You two have a lot in
common, and you're good for each other, from what I've seen," Delaara said with a smile.
Jacen walked up then. "Talking in low tones. Must be about Razor," he said.
"You're too observant for your own good," said Delaara, turning and kissing him.
"It's a talent," Jacen said with a shrug after enjoying her kiss.
"That's what I want with Alexei," said Jenny. "What you two have." Her eyes misted up a bit. "Jenny, what we have was forged in the fires of combat, which brought about mutual respect. It was tempered with a common love of many things and perfect compatibility, both physically and emotionally. If that's what you find with Alexei, then we'll be very happy for you." Jacen was surprised by Delaara's assessment of their relationship.
"You are amazing. I couldn't have said it better, myself," said Jacen with a smile and even more respect for his better half.
Ape was sitting and listening to the conversation. "It's good stuff, Jenny," he said with a grin. Lieutenant Dominic 'Ape' Dunn was a big guy. Easily two meters tall and built like a linebacker, he barely came in under the maximum height limit for a fighter pilot, hence his call-sign.
Jenny laughed at her ' big brother'. "Ape, please don't threaten Alexei," she said to him. "He's a good guy and treats me right."
Dominic stood up and looked down at her. "No problem, sis. But if he ever hurts you, I'm gonna stomp him into jelly. Deal?"
She chuckled. "Okay, deal. I don't think it'll be necessary, though."
"I hope not. I've fought a Drac hand-to-hand. He damn near beat me", Dom said.
Jacen laughed. "I remember that fight!" When Delaara looked at them quizzically, Jacen said "We were on the Drac home-world as part of a joint training operation with the Drac Military shortly after being assigned to the Zeppelin. We were out drinking with some of our Drac partners when a battleship captain took offense to a story that Ape was telling. He started talking shit about how he could beat any human alive, until Ape stood up."
Dom picked it up from there. "I stood up and the guy stopped mid-sentence, lookin' up at me with his eyes wide and his jaw hanging open. So I said 'you might want to close your mouth before something flies in there, bubba', and he decided to take a swing at me."
"So when the guy takes a swing at Ape, his fist connects with Ape's jaw and stops. It just stopped dead. I'd never seen anyone take a punch like that from a Drac warrior before. Ape just said 'ouch' in a deadpan voice, then picked up the Drac and threw him into the bar." Jacen was laughing at the memory.
"So then Jacen intercepts one of the guy's friends and decks the living shit out of him before he can get up behind me," said Dom, laughing now too.
"And that's when all hell broke loose. It was us two and our Drac wing-men against nearly an entire room full of pissed off warriors," said Jacen with tears in his eyes.
Jenny and Delaara just looked at each other, smirked, and said "Men" in unison. Jacen finally calmed down enough to finish. "So anyhow, our wing-men finally got us to the door, and the Drac captain comes charging at Ape, knocking him down and starting to wail on him. Ape just grabbed the guy's nuts and squeezed until he fell over. As I helped him up, the whole room was silent. They hadn't seen the nut-grab, but they'd seen him fall over."
Dom was chuckling. "When we got back to base, our crew said that Jacen and I took down Captain Ko'non and his entire crew by ourselves!"
Jacen said "You girls have your things that guys don't like to do. We have barfights," he said, draping his arm around Ape's shoulders.
Delaara and Jenny laughed at them. "I love a good bar-fight just as much as you do," said Delaara as she kissed him. "But the way you embellished that story was way beyond realistic."
"But that's what we do, Missus Delaara. We embellish it until it becomes a tall tale. We're guys," said Dom with a shrug and a grin.
"Speaking of which, I should tell them about when you beat the hell out of Gina Lee when we were at Big Ron's that day," Jacen said with an evil grin.
Delaara smiled. "That was fun, I'll admit. This woman who Jacen knew from before the Academy came into the bar looking to start trouble with him, so I stepped up, took a few insults from her mostly relating to my heritage, and then sent her flying with her teeth knocked out."
Dom was stunned. "Wow, ma'am! I think I love you!"
Delaara grinned. "I know you do, Ape."
Dom laughed. "Cobalt, she's definitely a keeper, brother!"
"I know that already, Dom. Trust me on this," he said, kissing his wife lovingly. That was when Bravo came out of the simulator. "All yours, Cobalt," said Rash with a grin. Jenny kissed Alexei on their way in, and he blushed noticeably as his teammates started ribbing him immediately.
As they started the simulation, Jacen laid down the rules. "Okay, we're going to do boys versus girls today. Gem, you're Redfox's wing, and Ape, you're with me. Standard rules of engagement, so let's do it."
*** Ape and Cobalt came under fire immediately from Redfox and Gem. They broke port and starboard, drawing a split from the women. Jacen had Delaara on his tail, and juked hard and pulled up to avoid her burst. "Nice one," he said over the comm.
"Thanks. How about you hold still a little?" Delaara chuckled.
"Well, I can't do that, now," he said, pushing forward in an inverted loop. "That would make it too easy for you."
"True. You know I love a challenge," she said, firing another burst that he evaded with a climbing barrel roll.
"Wow, that was fast," came Ape's voice over the comm. "Heads up, Cobalt. I'm EV and Gem is headed your way!" "Roger that, Ape. Stick around and watch," he grinned, pulling up into a loop and pulling the throttle all the way back. As soon as he had Redfox in his sights, he squeezed off a burst that slammed into her forward shields before accelerating past her again.
Delaara was momentarily blinded by the pulse cannon bolts hitting her shields, and banked hard to starboard as Jacen's Valkyrie shot past her. She pulled around as fast as possible, but he wasn't where she thought he'd be.
"Redfox, he's above you!" came Gem's frantic yell over the comm, but by then it was too late.
The burst shredded the remainder of her shields and she went EV with Ape.
"Gotcha," he said over her comm.
"Well, you haven't got me, yet," said Gem as she locked him and fired a quantum missile. Jacen diverted all shields to the rear, and slammed his fusion burners to maximum. The quantum was still on his tail, but he was able to minimize the damage when it finally hit. He readjusted his shields all forward, pulled hard about, and fusion burned towards Gem, proxing a photon missile and firing when she started firing her burst.
Gem saw it coming and banked hard just in time. The prox fuse detonated, but she was able to avoid engine damage. As she recovered, a burst of pulse phasers slammed into her fighter, tearing off her port side wing. Thinking quickly, she slammed her throttle back to stop, swung around, and fired her guns into his ship, depleting the remaining shields and puncturing the cockpit.
*** "Gem, that was some of the best flying I've ever seen!", said Jacen as they exited the simulator. Delaara and Ape were slapping her on the back as well.
"Well, when you shot my wing off, my options were pretty limited," she replied. "It was more desperation than actual thought."
"It was glorious!" Alexei said, running up to her and hugging her tight.
"I agree with the Drac," said Rash with a grin as he joined them. "We decided to watch and see what would happen."
"He shot me up pretty good, and I thought for sure that wouldn't work," Jenny said, blushing.
"Desperation is the mother of innovative tactics, Jenny," said Delaara with a smile.
"It reminded me of how I shot you down," said Jacen to his wife with a wink.
Jenny and Alexei had their arms around each other's waist, and she was beaming proudly. Delaara smiled at them. "Jenny, look at everything in perspective. You got shot down yesterday, but since then, you've found a man who loves you. Then you managed to school the bes
t fighter pilot in the galaxy with a desperate maneuver that worked beyond what anyone could imagine."
"She's right, Jenny," said Jacen, laughing. "And since I got shot down, beers are on me."
They all headed to the turbo-lift to Officer's Lounge.
*** It didn't take long for Rachel to show up at the bar to congratulate Jenny on her accomplishment. She slid her arm around Rash's waist and said "Gem, Rash forwarded me a copy of your simulation today. That was some inspired flying!"
"Thanks, Captain," she said with a smile. "It really was desperation more than anything else."
"But sometimes, desperation is-"
"The mother of innovative tactics," said the others, cutting her off. "You've all learned so well!" Rachel was proud. "I'm glad at least some of my words of wisdom didn't get thrown out the airlock."
Rash kissed her. "That's my Captain."
*** Alexei and Jenny told everyone about their date on the holodeck, and Jacen said "Okay, you two have fun, and don't do anything Delaara and I wouldn't do!" much to their blushing chagrin.
Even though he was the same age as they were, Jacen realized how much he'd matured over the past year. He felt older and more responsible thanks to being in a command position as Squadron Leader.
Delaara had noticed as well. "They're our kids. As much as we can have right now, anyway." "I think you're right. I'm proud to lead this squadron, and even prouder that I have you to help me lead it." He kissed her again. "I never get tired of kissing you, Delaara."
"Good, because I never get tired of you kissing me, Jacen", she said, kissing him deeply and passionately.
Rash looked at Rachel and said "When in Rome" as he kissed her just as passionately, pulling her into his arms.
The comm blared "Incoming hostiles detected. Captain to the Bridge!"
"Oh, shit!" Rachel said as they headed out of the bar. The pilots went to the flight hangar while she went to the Bridge.
***
Captain Weiss burst onto the Bridge and dashed to her Command Chair. "What's the situation, Number One?" Commander Reynolds said "Incoming Bren and Wraith battleships on long range scans, Captain." Her voice sounded worried.
