Pretense and Circumstance
By: Mira Elizabeth
Author's Note: All Star Command characters are the property of Disney/Pixar. All other characters are mine. If anyone has any ideas about how to make any of the technical sequences (i.e. battles, training sequences, etc.) in this fic better, please let me know. I cannot for the life of me write that stuff. I prefer to deal with the characters and how they tick, so all that technobabble stuff I am no good at.
Also, this story will focus on Mira. If you don't like her, then please do not read this and then flame me for liking her. Lately I've been very disappointed in the way writers treat her in their stories. She's a good character, a very positive female in a world where little girls are bombarded with pop princesses in skimpy outfits. I'm sorry for my little soapbox speech, but since I am now facing motherhood, I want to protect any positive role models (animated, real life, etc.) for my daughter (if that is what I'm having). And seeing as how this will probably be my last fic, I needed to get that out.
Also, if you do review this story, please be clean about it. What is in this story are my own thoughts, ideas, and opinions. You don't have to agree with them, but please respect my right to have them. So many times I see authors get flamed for having their own ideas and that is what quashes creativity and imagination. So read on and enjoy.
This story takes place after "Spirits of the Past" and before "Changes."
The day had not been a good one based on the galaxy-sized headache Mira Nova was trying desperately to get rid of. The princess shoved the pile of paperwork in front of her to one side with a growl of frustration and leaned forward, putting her elbows on the desk and her face in her hands. She could not believe Buzz told her that he was only going to take Booster and XR on the mission to Luma 4 and she was to stay back at Star Command and finish the backlog of post-mission reports. He had said something about her being good at writing and organizing them.
"Good at playing Buzz Lightyear's personal secretary he means." Mira grumbled to herself.
She leaned back in her chair, closed her eyes, and began rubbing her temples.
"Why can't this day just hurry up and end?" She moaned.
"What's the matter, Nova? Still upset that Buzz left you behind to do the paperwork."
Mira's eyes snapped open. "Oh great, just the person who can make this day even better. Don't you have someone else to annoy, Crockett?"
The other Ranger smiled mischievously. "Now, this looks like what…six months worth of paperwork."
"Go away."
"C'mon Mira, I'm just teasing." Crockett's smile was different this time. "Besides, there is something I wanted to ask you. I was wondering if…"
"Yeah, what is it? As you have so kindly pointed out, I have six months worth of paperwork to do."
"Jeez, let me finish a sentence, Princess." He said, not noticing the young woman's eyes narrowing at being called by her title. "I just wanted to know if you would like to grab some dinner. It's almost eighteen hundred hours."
Mira stared for a moment, speechless. Finally, she found her voice.
"You want to have dinner with me?"
"Yeah, I know. Weird. But you're really not all that bad when you're not being so…so…annoying." The dark-skinned Ranger grinned at her.
Mira tossed her red hair over her shoulder and leaned forward, a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. "Is that supposed to be a compliment?"
"Uh…well…" Crockett stammered.
"Don't worry. I'll let you off the hook for that one." Mira said, standing up and smiling. "I'd be happy to join you for dinner. I just need to finish this organizing this mess."
"Gotcha. I'll meet you in the cafeteria in ten, okay."
The young woman nodded. "I'll be there. I just hope it isn't meatloaf night." She made a face. "That stuff should be illegal."
Crockett laughed as he headed towards the hallway. "Yeah, I know. See you in a few."
Mira watched him leave and smiled, shaking her head. Of all the people for her to ever share a meal with, Rocket Crockett was the last person she would have ever thought of. He really wasn't her type, but his offer to have dinner had made her smile and she felt her bad mood lifting. She rearranged the piles of reports into neat stacks and headed off towards the cafeteria.
The crew of LGMs on the command deck watched as Star Cruiser 42 came to a rest in the launch bay, smoke billowing out in all directions.
"Ooooooh, Buzz…" The little green aliens said in unison as Lightyear emerged from the ship. Booster and XR followed behind, the little robot looking annoyed.
"I swear you all think the 'X' in my name stands for 'expendable…' He grumbled.
"XR, not now." Lightyear said, interrupting him.
"What? I'm just saying that you people seem to think that all I am good for is bait. Well it is going to end as of right now. Yes sir, it is going to end. This little robot is no longer going to…"
"XR!!" Buzz cried out in annoyance as the team moved towards the door that led out into the hallway. The door opened with a swishing sound and the ranger stepped through the doorway, looking down at the little robot. "I am really not in…"
His sentence was cut short as he collided with someone in the hallway. He staggered, but managed to retain his footing.
"For crying out loud, Buzz, can't you watch where you're going?"
Lightyear looked down and saw a very angry looking Mira sprawled out on the floor. Buzz offered a hand to help her up, but she pushed his hand away and picked herself up off the floor. The princess brushed off her uniform and straightened her hair before putting her hands on her hips and glaring at her teammate.
"Sorry about that." Buzz said sheepishly. "I should have been paying attention
The princess sighed. "It's okay. Look, I'm on my way to the cafeteria…"
"Oh food! Good idea, Mira, I'm starving!" Booster said, his voice becoming excited at the prospect of dinner.
Lightyear smiled. Dinner did sound good right about now. "Well then looks like we'll be joining you, Mira. You can tell me how many of those reports you got finished." He stared off in the direction of the cafeteria, Booster and XR following.
"Uh guys…guys…" But her teammates weren't paying any attention. The Tangean rolled her eyes, put two fingers into her mouth, and whistled. "Wait just a minute, you can't join me…"
The other three rangers stopped dead in their tracks and turned. Booster looked at Mira unhappily. "But why?"
"Because I…I'm meeting someone."
XR extended his metallic legs until he was eye to eye with Mira and leaned in close to the princess. "Awwwww…does our Mira have a date?"
The young woman narrowed her blue eyes and grabbed the dome protecting the little robot's metal head in both hands. "If you say one more word, it'll take the LGMs the next one hundred years to put you back together. Got it?"
XR lowered himself to his normal height and backed away from the Tangean.
Buzz smiled at Mira. "Who's the lucky ranger?"
"Lucky is not the word I would use, Buzz. Brave is more like it." XR said, ignoring the dirty look he was getting from the princess.
"Uh…Crockett." Mira said slowly.
The expressions on her teammates' faces told her they were thoroughly shocked and she quickly added: "But it's not a date. We were just going to…" Mira looked down at the time indicator on her space suit. "Oh craters. I'm late. Look, I'd love to finish this conversation, but I promised him I would be there five minutes ago. Bye."
Lightyear, Booster, and XR watched her leave, mouths open in shock.
"This day has definitely gotten weird." XR said, breaking the silence.
Buzz and Booster just nodded in agreement, unable to say anything.
"I was just about ready to think you had decided to stand me up." Crockett said with a grin.
"Sorry. I ran into Buzz in the hallway. Literally." Mira replied, taking a seat across the table from him. The cafeteria was crowded, only a few empty tables remained and those were quickly snatched up by rangers and LGMs carrying trays full of food.
"I've got good news for you." He said. "No meatloaf."
"That's a relief."
Crockett looked across the table at Mira. "I assume you told Buzz about our dinner."
"Uh…yeah." The princess smiled.
"Oh man, I wish I could have been there to see his expression."
"It was priceless. Definitely priceless." She laughed a little. The Tangean suddenly became quiet, thinking for a moment. "Look, I just wanted to say…"
"That this is just dinner." The other ranger finished for her.
"Yes…I'm mean no. Oh craters." She blushed. "I'm sorry. I guess I…" Her voice trailed off.
"Look, it's okay." Crockett said. "Believe me, I wasn't expecting anything from this. I know your seeing that Spirit guy from you planet. Terrin, right?"
Mira nodded, smiling a little at the mention of his name.
"I just thought we've never really gotten a chance to get to know one another." Crockett continued.
"That's because you are always being so..." Mira's smile turned mischievous. "…irritating."
"You are on a team with Lightyear and you are calling me irritating?" The other ranger teased.
"Stop it. Buzz isn't that bad, I suppose. Besides, what's your problem with him anyway?"
Crockett sighed. "I don't know. I have a problem with too much perfection. It's a little unsettling, I guess."
The ranger paused for a moment. "Buzz is a good guy, I'll give you that, but let's face it, he's just too perfect. And he's got the ego to prove it."
Mira sighed heavily, a clear sign she didn't want to discuss Buzz and his personality. Crockett got the hint and gestured towards the line of rangers waiting to be served food.
"The line's cleared out a bit..."
Mira nodded. "Yeah, let's get some dinner. I'm starving."
The two rangers headed towards the food line and within a few minutes both had trays full of food and were sitting back at their table.
Crockett looked at Mira's tray and grinned. "You weren't kidding when you said you were hungry."
The princess looked down and smiled at the portions of salad and pasta that covered her plate and the must-have bowl of chocolate pudding. She took a bite of pasta and they ate in silence for a few moments.
"So I hear you guys get to escort Jean-Paul Toreau's daughter to the Academy." Crockett finally spoke, in between bites of chicken.
"Yeah, we have to pick her up tomorrow afternoon from Toreau's private moon in the Omicron sector." Mira took a sip of her soda. "The rumor I heard though was that the decision for her to join the academy was Mr. Toreau's."
"Really? Definitely not like you, huh?"
The Tangean frowned. Her father's disapproval of her decision to join the rangers was still a sore issue with her and she didn't need the reminder. "No. I guess not."
Mira looked down at her plate, her appetite suddenly gone. She pushed her salad around with her fork.
"Look, I'm sorry..."
The princess's lifted her head and saw Crockett's combined apologetic and concerned expression.
"It's okay. There's no reason for you do be sorry. It's just...y'know..." Mira smiled, trying to lift the mood a little.
The rest of the meal was spent talking lightheartedly about Mira's Skills Re-qualification Test she had to take the next morning before the mission to pick up Esmé Toreau and Crockett's new condo on Capital Planet.
*Beep, beep, beep*
Mira yawned and rolled over, ignoring the offending alarm clock.
*Beep, beep, beep*
"All right. I'm up, I'm up." The princess lifted her tired body into a seated position and pushed the covers off of her. She pushed the button that turned off the alarm clock and glared at it. "Hateful thing."
She climbed out of bed and stretched, taking note of the time.
Oh-five-hundred hours. No wonder her body was telling her to get back in bed.
"Only an hour until the test." Mira said aloud, reminding herself that she had to re-qualify that morning. She sighed and walked across her quarters to the bathroom, glancing out of the window briefly. The Tangean still wasn't used to seeing stars in the morning. Almost three years a ranger and the sight of blackness and stars still threw her off a little.
Mira quickly showered, emerged from the bathroom, and put on her purple jumpsuit. She shivered a little as water droplets from her wet hair ran down the back of her neck and into her jumpsuit. The young woman glanced down at her desk, looking briefly through a pile of messages from various people. The Tangean senator, her friend Lana, Terrin, her father.
"I wonder what he wants." She wondered aloud. But there was no time to deal with that just now. The messages would have to wait.
Collecting her duffel bag, which contained hairbrush and spare jumpsuit, the princess left her quarters, deciding that her hair could dry on the way.
"Where are they? I knew I put them…" Items were flying out of Lightyear's locker as he searched through it. "Ah ha!! Here they are!"
Buzz triumphantly pulled out a pair of socks, holding them in the air. The Ranger next to him frowned in disgust.
"I don't know what's a greater threat to this galaxy, Zurg or those socks. Not the thing I wanted to smell first things this morning."
"What? These are my lucky socks, Curtis. I haven't washed these since…"
"Let me guess…" The other Ranger interrupted, holding his nose. "Since the academy."
"Yeah. I've got the Star Command Skills Re-qualification Test today with Ranger Nova. I've never had to re-qualify with her before."
Curtis grinned. "First time going up against Nova, huh? Nervous?"
"No. I'm her commanding officer and…" Lightyear puffed out his chest with pride. "Star Command's finest. Why would *I* be nervous?"
"Well she is the only one to pass training level 10 and if I recall correctly, Lightyear, you haven't even done that yet."
Buzz frowned at the grinning Ranger, angry at the reminder that the princess had done something better than he. "Curtis, don't you have a mission or a training session or something to do now?"
Curtis chuckled. "What's the matter, Lightyear? Afraid to be beaten by the *princess*?"
"No. She's good. But she won't outscore me." Lightyear pulled the socks on over his feet and wiggled his toes. Curtis made a gagging motion and moved a few inches down the bench from the other ranger.
"You won't have to do anything to outscore Mira. Those socks'll render her unconscious."
"Ha ha ha." Lightyear said, rolling his eyes. He slammed his locker door and stood. The ranger turned to leave…
"Good luck." Curtis said.
Lightyear shook his head and walked off in the direction of the training room.
Mira was waiting for him in the training room. Dressed in her space suit, hair neatly pulled back in a bun, she looked calm and confident. Booster and XR stood off to the side amongst a group of other rangers, all eager to see the test begin. After all, one of Star Command's legends was taking the re-qualifications test and it was a chance to see the long-admired ranger in action. A good learning experience for the rookies and all anxiously waiting to see the two rangers put their skills in action.
Commander Nebula watched as Buzz took his place next to the Tangean.
"Now I'm sure you both know the rules. You will be scored in three sections: shooting, flight maneuvers, and hand-to-hand combat. One hundred possible points in each section and you must score at least an 85 in each section in order to re-qualify. Understood?"
Both Lightyear and Mira each snapped into a stiff salute.
"Yes, sir." They said in unison.
"All right. Then let's get this show on the road." The commander nodded to an LGM who was standing near a small computer console. The little alien pressed a button and two flight simulators emerged from hatches in the room's floor. The two rangers boarded the simulators and the test began.
Mira looked out at the stars as the cruiser left the station. She loved being in space, being out amongst the stars. It was there she felt truly free and at her happiest.
She took the folder Buzz had given her before they had left the station,
"Esmé Toreau. Nineteen." Mira said aloud, staring at the photo she held in her hand. She tucked a stray lock of her red hair behind her ear. The Tangean had the new cadet's folder spread out on the console in front of her. The girl was definitely pretty, brunette, with green eyes. But she had a certain look and the only words Mira could find to describe it were 'spoiled brat.'
XR let out a whistle behind her and Mira turned her head to see her robotic teammate leaning over her shoulder peering down at the photo in her hand.
"Verrrrry nice." He said.
Mira rolled her eyes and put her hand on the robot's dome, pushing him away from her.
"Forget it, XR. Somehow, I don't think she's your type."
The robot frowned. "Oh really, Miss Know-It-All? And just how do you figure that?"
Mira sighed and pointed a long, slender finger at her head. "Call it my advanced mental perception."
"Mmm-hmm." The robot folded his arms across his metallic chest, obviously not impressed.
"Just drop it, okay." Mira turned back around in her chair and continued to look through the file for a few moments looking up and over at her commanding officer. "No hard feelings about the test this morning?"
"Nah. You've worked hard and I'm proud of the job you've done, Ranger." Buzz smiled at her and the princess returned the smile gratefully.
"I just can't believe I've let myself slip that much." Lightyear joked. Mira shook her head, a smile still on her lovely face. She was glad to see Buzz taking his defeat well.
She honestly had surprised herself when she had seen their scores on the test. The point totals had been close, very close in fact, Mira taking only a slight lead over her commanding officer.
"You did get me on the shooting though. I'm sure that makes you feel a little bit better." Mira teased.
"Yeah. It does actually." Buzz said with a grin. He turned his attention to the small moon in the center of the viewscreen in front of them. "Toreau's moon, up ahead. XR, open a comm channel and advise them we'll be landing in about fifteen minutes.
"Roger that."
Jean-Paul Toreau was an impressive man. Tall, well-built, elegantly dressed in a designer suit, the 48-year old businessman looked far younger than his years. He smiled warmly at the four rangers who entered his enormous, elegantly decorated office.
"Buzz Lightyear, I am delighted to meet you." He said, shaking the ranger's hand.
Thank you, Mr. Toreau." Lightyear gestured towards his teammates. "May I present my team, Rangers Booster, XR, and..."
"Mira Nova." Toreau interrupted, bowing respectfully in the direction of the startled young woman. "Your Highness..." He took Mira's slender hand in his own and kissed the back of it. "It is truly an honor, Princess."
Mira's normally blue-skinned face was now bright red as she tried to hide her embarrassment. "Uh…thank you."
"I had the honor of doing business with your father a few weeks ago." The man said, smiling.
The young woman raised an eyebrow at Toreau's comment, knowing full well how her father felt about non-Tangeans. But then again Jean-Paul Toreau wasn't just any human. He was one of the few humans that had earned respect from almost every race in the galaxy. Toreau was a major supporter of the Galactic Alliance, funding several programs that helped to make the galaxy a better place. He was looked kindly upon by all in the Alliance and seen not only as a successful businessman, but a successful humanitarian as well.
The man took a seat behind his desk and gestured to the chairs nearby. Buzz, Mira, and Booster each took a seat and Toreau leaned back in his chair.
"My daughter will be along in a moment. Last minute packing you know."
"I hope only the essentials, sir." Buzz said. "The cadets have rather small rooms in the dormitories."
"Well, Esmé has her own definition of essential, but I am sure she will have no trouble taking…"
He was interrupted by the sound of the door opening with a swoosh.
"I knew it! You're actually serious about this!" An angry female voice penetrated the room's atmosphere and all four rangers turned.
Mira gritted her teeth and looked over at Buzz. This was not going to be good.