board the
Yen lowered his display screen before he continued. “Sorry, I was distracted.”
“I know,” she said, leaning against the edge of the fighter’s low wing. “That’s the third time you’ve pulled up the maintenance report on that specific fighter.”
She crossed her arms over her ample chest, concealed poorly by a thin grey sleeveless shirt. Her maintenance coveralls had been unzipped, the top half of which hung lazily around her waist. Iana raised an eyebrow, encouraging Yen to explain. Yen scowled, knowing she already knew what was on his mind, but willing to play the game with her.
“My heart just isn’t in the inspection today, I guess,” he explained, covering the truth with his poor explanation.
Iana smiled smugly. “It’s interesting you mention your heart, since that’s the reason you’re not paying attention to what you’re doing,” she chided. “You’re thinking about
“What if I am?” Yen said defensively. “Keryn is out there trying to find a cure for the latest Terran attack and all we’re doing is polishing fighters and adding fresh coats of paint. She’s doing something substantial, not to mention that we have so much riding on the success of her mission.” Yen scowled to himself, regretting his decision a few months before the invasion of Earth to tell Iana about his feelings for Keryn. Still, though obviously hurt by his rejection of her advances, Iana had still remained a close, if not brutally honest friend.
“It’s not her mission you’re worried about,” Iana said, shaking her head and reaching out to place her hand on his arm. “It’s okay to admit that you’re worried about her. Truth be told, I’m sure she’d like to know how much you cared.” She turned her head away as she continued. “But…”
“But?” Yen asked, suddenly feeling like he had been led into a trap.
“But we need you to be less of a whipped puppy and more of a Squadron Commander,” Iana said harshly. “In the near future we’re going to be engaged in the greatest series of battles ever fought by the Interstellar Alliance. You are going to be a key part of that assault, leading the fighter Squadron from the Alliance flagship.” She placed a hand on each cheek, pulling his face down so he was eye level with her shorter stature. “We need… no, I need a commander who will be focused and tactically aware. I can’t have you getting distracted at the last possible moment, not when so many lives depend on the decisions you make. Focus, sir.”
Yen placed his hands over hers and gently pulled them away from his face. “I wish it were that easy, Iana. With everything else going on, I can’t seem to get her out of my head. Every time I let my mind wander, it naturally wanders to her.”
“Then you need something to take your mind off of her,” she said coyly, stepping close so that her firm breasts pressed against his arm. “And I don’t mean another hobby, you need something that will match the ferocity with which she got into your head the first time.”
Yen didn’t have to be psychic to understand what she meant. It also wasn’t hard for him to see that she was offering herself as his distraction. He felt his eyes wandering past her face and toward the exposed cleavage, more pronounced by her loose sleeveless shirt hanging open in the front. Though he couldn’t deny that Iana was attractive and possessed a very well endowed body, he just didn’t feel the yearning that he expected when he looked at her so clearly throwing herself at him.
“You’re probably right,” Yen began. “But…”
“But,” Iana stated, smiling at the irony but appearing crestfallen nonetheless.
“But I just don’t think I’m ready to grab a woman, especially one that I care about and have known for so long, just to appease my physical desires. I think there should be a deeper commitment.”
“You’re a strange man, Yen,” Iana said as she turned to leave. “But I’m not wrong. You need to find someone, and soon. Overcome your need to make sex more than what it is and get it out of your system. If you can’t get your head in the game, you’re useless to us as a Squadron Commander. Just think about it.”
Yen watched her leave, her hips swaying in an obvious taunt toward his decision. Though the thought of Iana’s ample breasts pressing against his body did cause a stirring in his loins, his ideations were quickly interrupted as his transponder crackled to life.
“Squadron Commander Xiao,” the stern male voice stated. “This is Eminent Merric.”
“This is Yen,” he replied as he continued to watch Iana walk away.
“Yen, I need you to report with me to the aft weapons bay,” Merric called over the radio. “Captain Hodge has tasked us both with ensuring that all weapons bays are in perfect order during the next inspection.”
“Roger,” Yen said curtly into the radio. Unless provoked, Yen often chose to remain in the hangar as opposed to traipsing through the stuffy halls of the ship and examining weapon systems that had no bearing on his tactics within the Squadron.
“I will meet you there,” Merric replied, his tone as emotionless as usual. “Eminent Merric, out.”
Yen collected his equipment and, buttoning the top button on his dress uniform to ensure compliance with uniform regulations on the ship, left the hangar and made his way toward the aft weapons bay. The walk was long, having to go from midship to the elevators that would take him to the upper floor where the weapon systems were housed. He used that time to think about what Iana had said. Perhaps she was right. Perhaps he did need something to distract him from his thoughts of Keryn. However, Yen knew he was right to not accept Iana’s offer in the hangar bay. Building a relationship, even for only one night, with a subordinate was a recipe for disaster, especially when he was required to make decisions that toyed with the lives of all his pilots, including Iana’s. Emotions would be a hindrance in such a situation. Still, he couldn’t help but agree that a distraction would serve him well. Distracted as he was, Yen barely noticed when he arrived at the large metal doors that led into the aft weapons bay, having traversed the entire ship while lost in thought.
As the doors slid open, Yen stepped inside the busy weapons bay. The silence of the
Both Merric and Scyant turned as Yen approached, their conversation halting. Scyant struck a stiff salute as he reached the pair, her stern military bearing unwavering even in the course of working in the weapons bay. He returned her salute, ignoring Merric’s inquisitive looks as he expected his own salute. He cleared his throat, a nervous tick Yen had noticed whenever he felt an awkward silence spread, and returned to perusing his reports.
“During the last exercise involving your weapons bay,” Merric continued, picking up his conversation where they had left off before Yen’s arrival, “your section did not maintain the high standards expected by the weaponeers of this ship.” He looked down, consulting the series of numbers that scrolled across his screen. “The return fire by the rail guns was inaccurate and would not have maintained a proper field of suppression against any pursuing ships.”
Scyant’s face appeared carved from stone, only the slightly rosy patches of color on her cheeks belied the frustration she felt. “Sir, with all due respect, I explained previously that we have been waiting for the proper instruments in order to fully calibrate the rail guns, instruments that have been on order for over four months. The fault here lies with Logistics. If you would kindly ask them when I can get my instrumentation, I’ll ensure that my weapons bay is compliant next exercise.”
Yen smiled, appreciating the fire he heard barely masked behind her calm demeanor. Though she addressed the fault as being that of the Logistics cell, Yen knew as well as Scyant did that it was Eminent Merric who oversaw that section. Her own thoughts, clearly imprinted in the front of her mind, told Yen what she really thought: any fault in the Logistics cell was a direct reflection of its piss-poor leadership. Merric, thankfully, seemed oblivious to her subtle berating, and continued his rant.
“This ship cannot operate if everyone simply wants to point fingers at one another,” he said. “We want
