Disclaimer: I do not own Bodacious Space Pirates or any of the characters thereof. This story contains mature content, including strong language and some yuri content. Okay, a lot of yuri content. If yuri is not your thing, you may not enjoy this story. Or this series, for that matter. Or most Anime. Or Gilligan's Island. Or Berkeley. Or West Hollywood.
The school's public address system crackled to life in the chilly afternoon air. "Lynn Lambretta, first year middle school division – please report to the Student Discipline Room. Immediately!"
Lynn looked up from her studies, and noticed all the eyes trained on her in the study hall. "…what'd you do, Lynn?" One of her classmates asked, seeming to be as astonished as Lynn felt. "Not a clue, Shari", Lynn replied, her dark brown hair dashing about her face as she shook her head. She gathered her books and bag, and rose from her chair. Her multicolored leggings that her parents had given her were bright and cheery, compared to her rather dour middle school uniform. But the regulations allowed such variances, so long as no trousers were worn. "At least one tenth of the student's limb shall be visible below the hem of the skirt." The Academy's administrators wanted their students to be girly girls.
Lynn was one of the few tomboys at Hakuoh Jogakuin, and despite being a mere 12-year-old, she had a rather dashing and rakish flair at which even some of the older girls seemed to swoon. But there was only one girl that Lynn wished would notice her. Just one.
She walked confidently into the Student Discipline Room, not having any idea why she had been summoned. As she entered, she saw the principal, seated and with a rather dour look on her face. At one of the guest seats in front of her desk was her home room teacher, who also regarded her rather disdainfully. In the other guest seat was a man in a military uniform that she did not recognize. And in three of the four chairs arranged off to the side – the chairs reserved for students being disciplined, were two seniors with whom she was acquainted….and….her.
"Please have a seat," the principal said in deadpan. She motioned to the only empty chair. The chair next to…Her. "I believe you already know one another, so we'll dispense with introductions," the principal continued. "Ladies, this is Colonel Brendan Mays of the Stellar Military. He's assigned to their Data Integrity Division. Colonel?"
The colonel stood up and regarded each of the girls, scanning each for any hint of guilt in their young, fresh faces. "Good afternoon ladies," he began, his tone firm and his face absent of any hint of emotion. "My purpose here is to get to the bottom of the Nebula Cup disaster, and my investigation has brought me, in one way or another, to the four of you."
Lynn shifted in her chair, and noticed that the two seniors had squirmed a bit as well, but the regal, tall blonde girl seated next to her didn't even blink her emerald eyes. Instead, she stood up and started to speak, but the colonel raised his hand to halt her from speaking.
"Before any one of you utters a word, I must advise you of your rights under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, as well as those under the Constitution of the Stellar Alliance and the Articles of Justice of the Galactic Empire. Since they are basically the same, at least as far as this situation is concerned, I'll summarize: You are not required to, nor may you be compelled to speak in your own defense or to make any statement that could result in your self-incrimination. You have the right to legal representation. If you do speak, anything that you say can and will be used in your prosecution. Now, that being said, did you have something you wanted to say, Miss Doolittle?"
Lynn looked up at her. Jenny Doolittle was stunningly beautiful, tall for her age, statuesque, and utterly indomitable. Lynn had had a crush on her since she came to this academy, but could never bring herself to speak to her.
"I want to know why the four of us are here," Jenny said calmly. "What could anything that happened last week on Calmwind have to do with any of us?"
"At this point, Miss Doolittle, you and your two upperclassmen are simply persons of interest…possibly witnesses. The only one among you who may be indicted is you, Miss Lambretta," he said, glaring at Lynn. "I'm not here to interrogate any of you today. A team of my best forensic investigators will arrive tomorrow morning, and I'm sure that they'll want to have a few hours of your time."
He turned to the principal. "Miss Holland, I want all of the academy's outbound FTL lines shut down, if they haven't been already. My team'll be digging through the comm logs tomorrow, after they've finished questioning the girls. There may be more questioning after they've gone through the comm logs."
Jenny looked to her right at the two seniors, and then to her left at Lynn. Despite Lynn's best poker face, she could sense apprehension in the young girl. She then sat back down, as the principal stood to speak.
"Girls, I've already notified your parents…well all but yours, Lynn. I haven't been able to reach them, but I've left several messages. If you need legal representation, the power of attorney that your parents granted to the academy allows us to represent you, if you wish. Amy, Bethany, your respective parents are retaining local representation for you. Jenny, your uncle is sending the company lawyer to represent you, and he made it clear that you are not to speak to anyone until the company attorney has spoken with you. That specifically includes not speaking to any of the other girls."
"Begging your pardon ma'am, but they're my friends and members of the yacht club….how'm I supposed to not talk to them…?"
The principal slammed her hand down on her desk and cut off Jenny's sentence. "You WILL obey my instructions and those of your uncle, Miss Doolittle! The yacht club is shut down until this investigation is concluded…our dinghies have been recovered from their crash sites and are being impounded at the relay station…as far as I'm concerned, there is nothing that any of you need to say to each other that can't wait until this investigation is over! You are all dismissed!"
The two seniors sprung out of their chairs as if they had been shocked, and made for the door. Jenny stood, watched them retreat, and turned slightly to look at Lynn, who seemed to be in shock. Lynn looked up at Jenny in bewilderment, not believing what was happening. Jenny gave her a friendly nod, and then headed for the door. She desperately wanted to offer her a word of encouragement, but she knew the consequences of disobeying her uncle.
Lynn looked at the three adults as she rose from her chair. They were busy talking and didn't even look at her. She quietly shut the door as she left, and headed for her dorm room.
Jenny was furious. She watched as the two seniors disappeared down the corridor, heading to the dorm building, most likely, she thought to herself. The way they squirmed, the way that they launched out of the room like scalded dogs….it felt seriously wrong. But she dared not confront them. She was a mere second year middle school student, granted membership to the yacht club simply due to her family's connections. And then there was the look on Lynn's face…the look of a deer caught in the headlights…and it troubled her deeply. She had noticed the young tomboy in the first year class, but never seemed able to corner her to speak to her. She found her interesting…even attractive. Her boyish demeanor, her short, wavy hair, her bright blue eyes, and her roguish cockiness all created a mystique that Jenny wholeheartedly wanted to explore. But whenever she approached, the younger girl would seem to disappear in the opposite direction, as if she suddenly remembered she needed to be somewhere else. Maybe she just doesn't like me, Jenny thought to herself. There were a lot of girls at the academy that had initially perceived her as a rich brat, but had befriended her once they realized that she was just a normal, somewhat shy schoolgirl like the rest of them. She hoped that someday, perhaps Lynn would warm up to her. But that day wasn't going to be today. She headed for the transport kiosk, and caught a ride to her bungalow, a few kilometers away.
"Hurry up, Amy," Bethany grumbled. "I'm going as fast as I can, Beth," Amy replied with annoyance. "I thought we were gonna get something to eat…"
Bethany cut her off. "We need to get back to the dorm and wait for the lawyers to contact us. God, I hope our little man-girl doesn't rat us out…"
"She won't," Amy responded, trying to reassure herself more than anything else. "We're her friends, right?" She stopped suddenly, and in a low voice said,"…say…you don't think our room is bugged, do you….?"
Bethany also stopped, and turned to face Amy. "Jesus Christ monkey balls…you may be right…" She looked around, noting all the surveillance devices on light poles, kiosks, pathway lights - in fact – in just about every technological device around. She grabbed Amy's hand, and pulled her along, putting her index finger over her own lips to shush her. They hurriedly scrambled to a small clearing, near the lake on the far side of the athletic field. Bethany looked around, and could see no sign of surveillance devices.
"I think we can talk here," Bethany whispered. "Then why are we whispering?" Amy whispered back.
"Because somehow whatever we did, now the military's involved! And they're talking about indicting someone! And that someone could be us if Lynn rats us out!"
"But all we did was change the course," Amy protested, still whispering. "Why would the military care about that?"
"…I dunno…maybe one of the people who got hurt was someone important…or maybe it's 'cause we hijacked an interstellar FTL comm line…"
"Do you think Jenny knows what we did?" Amy asked softly. "I doubt it," Bethany said, shaking her head. "And we both better make sure she doesn't find out. The ones who gave us the advance course data will come after us if we bust the deal."
At that moment, Bethany's phone buzzed. "Hello?" she responded. "Yes I'm on campus…okay…I'll be right there…" She ended the call, and told Amy, "The lawyers are at the dorm. Let's go talk to them." Amy nodded, but looked worried. "Do we tell the advocates the whole story, then? ...all the stuff that we did…?" "Of course not!" Bethany huffed. She turned and could see the anxiety in Amy's eyes. She gently took Amy's face in her hands, and gently kissed her forehead. "Let me do the talking, okay, sweetie? We'll just tell them as much as they need to know. No one can tie us to any of it. Not the hacking, not the dinghy, not any of it. Trust me." She lifted Amy's chin with her index finger and planted a kiss on her lips. Amy buried her face in Bethany's neck and sighed. Bethany glanced up at the sky for a fleeting moment, musing about having gotten even with the little rich upstart for bumping her out of the competition. "Come on," she urged Amy, and the two headed off to the dormitory, holding hands.
Lynn wandered over to the middle school dorm, went upstairs to her room, and sat down heavily on her bed. Her roommate was off-world, so she would be alone for a few days. It was a miserable time to be alone, and she could feel the tightness in her chest. So many questions. What was this military colonel talking about? To what disaster was he referring? Why was she the one who would be indicted? Hell, what were the charges? Why was Miss Holland so intense and angry? Why couldn't she talk to Amy and Beth? She glanced up at the wall on her side of the dorm room, where all her various snapshots of Jenny Doolittle were pinned. She loved snapping pictures of her, or sharing photos and holos with members of the yacht club who would snap pictures of her in the sim, or even in flight. She picked up her print of her favorite photo of Jenny…her school ID photo that she had hacked from the school's computer. In the photo, Jenny was wearing a white dress, and her signature clover earrings and necklace. Her wavy blond hair flowed around her head and neck, and her gleaming emerald eyes exuded both kindness and aristocracy all at once. Lynn had never felt worthy to approach her, let alone speak to her. Despite all the girls in this school who had crushes on her, some of whom even confessed to her, Lynn only wanted to be with one girl, and that was Jenny. But what would happen now? What if she really was indicted? Or convicted? Or expelled? She lay back on the bed, holding the picture above her face, gazing at Jenny's gentle face. She could feel tears brimming in her eyes, and spilling down her cheeks, blurring the shining image in front of her. It wasn't supposed to be like this.
Jenny arrived at her bungalow, and could see that the front door was already open. She approached hesitantly, but from inside a young woman's voice called out to her. "Jennifer, is that you? Get your ass in here! We've got a lot of ground to cover!"
Jenny walked in, and regarded the young, petite Asian woman who had so rudely addressed her. Dressed in a business suit with a scandalously short slit skirt stood Keiko Takeda, one of the company's lawyers. She mused to herself, probably one of Uncle Robert's mistresses as well.
"Come sit down!" Keiko commanded. Jenny sauntered over casually, willfully annoying the young woman. As attractive as she was, Jenny wouldn't want even the sweetest part of her. "What's this all about, anyway?" Jenny inquired as she sat down, placing a throw pillow between her butt and Keiko's.
Keiko observed the separation maneuver and regarded her with disdain. "This'll actually go a lot faster and more efficiently if you let me ask the questions and you just answer them. I don't want to taint your responses with information that you don't have, nor do you need to have. Got it?"
"…got it…" Jenny muttered. She really disliked Keiko from a young age, but she also knew that the pretty little mouthpiece had her family's best interests at heart.
"You attended the 13th Nebula Cup last week on Calmwind, right?" Takeda asked.
"I did." Jenny was going to be as uncooperative as possible, without being outright insubordinate.
"Did you compete?" Takeda continued, appearing not to notice or care about Jenny's obstinacy.
"Yes." Jenny deadpanned. Wasn't much of a competition. She had made it through the first two of the checkpoints, but caught a severe gust and lost one of her control surfaces. With only her starboard canarderon attached, she had desperately fought the controls and spiraled from about a thousand meters in a long, terrifying descent until she crashed into a peat bog. She had been lucky…dozens of others hadn't.
"When did you receive your course map?" Takeda queried.
"Just before the starting gun." It was a strange question. No one gets a copy of the course until a few seconds before the mag-lock releases. That was one of the cardinal rules of yacht racing.
"…so…you didn't have any advance knowledge of the course…?"
Jenny sat up straight. "What…?"
"Yes or No?" Takeda demanded.
"…no…" Jenny muttered softly, stunned at the notion of anyone cheating.
"I sure hope your answers to the Board of Inquiry will be more resolute," Keiko sneered.
"Tell me about that first year…Lambretta….do you know her?"
"Not as well as I'd like…" Jenny mused, a smile curving her mouth.
"Careful, little girl," Keiko warned. "Don't forget your responsibilities to the family. What do you know about her? And why do you have pictures of her on your wall?
Jenny glowered at her. "You went through my room? And what're you trying to imply? I'm barely thirteen, and she's only twelve. She's cute and I just want to be friends with her."
"…cute…" Keiko coughed. "Must be some new definition of the word, "cute" that I missed."
"I don't care what you think of her," Jenny scowled. "I like her."
"Fine," Keiko said softly, and then went right back to her interrogation. "Are you aware of any members of your yacht club engaging in data piracy?"
"No." Jenny said resolutely. "We're the best. We don't need to cheat."
"What about your "cute" little first year?"
"She's not even a member of the yacht club. Why would she do such a thing, IF she even could do such a thing?"
"Well, someone did. And it's serious." Keiko reached out and took Jenny's hand in hers. For Jenny, it felt really awkward. "Listen to me carefully, Jenny," Keiko said, a very fervent look in her eyes. "You've never liked me…I know that…it's probably my fault….I'm a self-righteous, ambitious, pushy little bitch and I always have been. I grew up with five brothers and they're all doctors, lawyers or politicians…My father serves on the Galactic Empire's High Court. My whole life, I've always had to prove myself. But this situation could have far-reaching consequences for Hugh and Doolittle. My job here is to protect you and the company. Please help me to do my job." Her hand holding Jenny's was trembling, and her eyes were intense.
"Tomorrow, you and I will be sitting in front of some of the best-trained interrogators of the Stellar Military. If I don't like the question that they ask, I'll squeeze your hand…like this…and I'll object to the question. Don't say a word until I stop squeezing. And if they ask a question that you don't want to answer, you squeeze my hand…harder…yes, just like that. And we'll talk it over outside before you answer. Okay?"
"Just what the hell is going on?" Jenny finally demanded, still holding her hand. "This is the craziest thing I've ever heard. The race hits a bit of bad weather, people wipe out, and suddenly there's a military tribunal? Seriously, what the hell?"
"I cannot – no, I WILL not risk tainting your testimony tomorrow. There is just too much at stake. What you don't know can't hurt us, but if your answers suggest to them that you know something, they will pick you apart and tear you to pieces. Along with Hugh and Doolittle." Keiko smiled at her gently. "We'll get through this. Now let's eat, and get some sleep. I just jumped here all the way from Orion, and I'm beat." Jenny nodded, regarding the young woman with more respect than before. She was still a bitch, but she was a decent bitch, and her heart was in the right place.