Incursion Vector

045

[▲] INS Robert A. Heinlein, Alenquer Waypoint

Damien stuck his head out of his bunk and looked down at the rest of the flight gathered in the common area. "Anyone seen Nim? Or think it's seriously weird she missed out on chow when it involved passable pizza?"

Laughing through her nose Calli said, "Oh thank God someone could identify that crap. We really should notify its next of kin."

Edging his eyes over the spine of his book Vic looked up from where he had once again claimed the entire couch for himself. "Dude that was not 'pizza'. That was half-assed flatbread sprinkled with spam and tomatoes canned back when gunpowder was still used in bullets."

"I've eaten ration cakes that had more flavor than whatever they decided to feed us today," agreed Leo, filing in after Keiji as they returned from the showers.

"It was passable if you ate the spam part, Leo."

"Even if I were to consume pork, I would not have eaten... whatever that was. Chunks of gelatinous pink refuse vomited out of a meat machine, I believe."

Damien leaned over the railing with a devilish grin. "One day I'll get you to eat bacon. Bacon is the gateway to the glory of tasty, tasty pig."

"I will eat bacon the day we are both starving to death with no hope of immediate rescue and you've slaughtered the animal according to halal."

Immediately the color drained from other pilot's face. "I'll pass."

Leo flashed his friend a small smirk of victory as he climbed up the ladder to his bunk. "As I thought."

"Seriously, Leo, did you have to describe it like that?" Karda grimaced at the thought of what he had shoveled into his mouth earlier, then ducked inside his bunk and returned with his toothbrush and mouthwash, immediately heading back towards the lavatory. "Last I saw she was micromanaging the SIF's refit and going on about Stuka seats."

A grunt of frustration echoed through their quarters. "Gah I'm not going near her when she's on one of those rants. Someone just remind me I owe her fifty in the AM."

Keiji tossed his shower kit under-armed into his own bunk below Nim's. "Why do you owe MacNamara fifty credits?"

"She really did thread an asteroid through one of those holes in the SIF's wings!" replied Damien, waiving over the railing. "G'night guys. And Vic, get your feet off the goddamn couch. There's six of us in here, 'bout to be eight. Learn to share."

Vic righted himself and proceeded to use the coffee table in the middle of the room for a footrest instead. "Yes mother!"

"Thank you, sweetheart," replied Damien in a high-pitched voice that sent Vic into a fit of hysteric laughter.

Dragging a rarely-used gray hoodie out of his seabag Keiji pulled it over his head and headed for the door. "I'm going to go make sure she sleeps at least."

"Good luck with that," said Calli as she joined him in the corridor on her way to the showers herself. "She'll probably just bite your head off for encroaching on her fighter one-on-one time. You know how she gets."

Keiji shrugged. "Yeah, well, then it'll just be another Monday, won't it."

"And Tuesday, and Wednesday, and Thursday, and--"

"I get it, Halpern."

The short pilot's nose wrinkled as she smirked at him. "Coffee distracts her. Bring some or you're going to be talking to a gnat going at FTL."