Darkness blanked the world and stars shone above the Gekko. The Green rebel ship drifted slowly along the Ray Line toward the next big wave, or the next big fight, which ever came first. On the bridge of Holland lounged in the captain's chair with a book. At helm sat Renton a worried expression on his face. He had only piloted the ship a few times and had not yet really gotten the hang of it.
Suddenly the Gekko dipped violently. "RENTON! What the hell are you doing over there?" Holland put down his book with a small thud and stood up. "Are you trying to wake everyone up?"
"I'm sorry Holland, the waves are a little choppy."
"Ya, it's the waves." Rolling his eyes, Holland walked to the helm and turned a switch. The Auto Nav blinked to life. He set the course and returned to his seat. "Let's let the Gekko fly herself for a while shall we. It's probably the only way anyone is going to get a peaceful sleep around here." He picked up his book and went back to the passage he had been reading.
It was several moments before Renton spoke again. "Holland?" He shifted in his seat so that he could se the leader of the Gekkostate.
"What?" Holland looked over his book at the younger man.
"How did you and Talho hook up?"
"Why?" Holland lowered his book and glared at Renton.
"I don't know, I guess cause you both seem like your still in love after everything that you've been through and I just wondered how it started, that's all." Renton was having a hard time reading Holland's face and he was beginning to wish he hadn't asked.
Holland deflated slightly. "Wow, ummm well it was a long time ago." His eyes drifted and he stared past Renton for several minutes before he continued. "My brother thought that he was dating her, but she couldn't stand him."
LT Holland Novak sat on the cowling of his KLF, trying to get the Radar Head lose so that it could be replaced. After working on the ten minute task for over an hour his anger level was rising and his fuse was short and as he spied Dewey strutting through the door of the hanger it only grew shorter.
Holland could tell just by looking at his older brother that he was in one of his pompous and arrogant moods. This was the last thing that Holland wanted to deal with and he considered trying to hid but something caught his attention. Behind Dewey was a young female officer. "Ahhh this must be the new girl friend." Holland muttered to himself. "That explains today's pomposity."
"hmmm, she's actually pretty cute. What does she see in my brother? She must be retarded. Or maybe she just hasn't known him long enough to understand what a moron he is." Holland was so wrapped up in his thoughts that he failed to notice his friend Marcus climbing up onto the KLF beside him.
"Novak, how's it going?" Marcus slapped Holland on the back.
"Auggggg." A startled Holland almost fell from the KLF. "Marcus don't sneak up on me like that.
"There was no sneaking, I just climbed up here, and if you had been paying attention you would have noticed me. What are you looking at anyway?"
"Dewey's new girlfriend. I'm trying to figure out what's wrong with her."
"Is that her? She's not bad looking. I would have thought that any girl that would date your brother would be a complete mutant."
"Ya me to. I figure that she must be slow or something." Holland resumed work on the radar and tried to ignore the fact that his brother had a cute new girlfriend and that he himself was still single. He was so intent on ignoring the couple that he didn't notice when they walked up to the base of the 505.
"Holland"
"What?" Holland looked up surprised at being interrupted. His face fell as he realized that it was Dewey talking to him.
"This is Talho Yuki, Talho this is my younger brother, Holland."
The brown haired woman smiled, "It's nice to meet you Holland."
"Umm ya, you to."
"Holland a bunch of us are going out to the Shark House for dinner and drinks tonight, why don't you join us." Holland could tell by Dewey's voice that it was more of an order than an invitation.
"Ya if I get done here at a reasonable time I'll meet you there." Holland began to hope that the Radar Head would remain stuck so that he could get out of dinner.
" Good, we'll see you there." Dewey motioned to Talho and the two began to walk away.
"Great, I was going to catch some Trapar tonight, now I have to go to dinner with Dip Shit Dewey and the Mutant." Holland slammed down his wrench "This sucks."
"Yep it does. Man am I glad that I'm not related to that guy." Marcus laughed. "You want some help with that Radar Head?"
"Fuck no, maybe if I'm lucky it won't come lose and I'll be here all night."
"Good luck with that."
Weather it was karma, luck or fate the Radar Head came off ten minutes later and Holland was forced to attend dinner at the Shark House with Dewey, Talho and a couple of other officers from the base. Holland did his best to maintain a high level of invisibility through out the meal, talking only when spoken to and doing nothing that would draw attention to himself.
As the meal wound down Holland found himself alone at the table with his brothers girl friend. Dewey was in the rest room and most of the others had left. He fiddled with his drink and continued wishing that the night was over.
"Your brother is kind of an ass."
Holland looked at Talho surprised by the statement. "Than why are you dating him?"
"WHAT, I'm not dating him. Where did you get that idea?"
"From him. The other night he told me that he was dating this new girl named Talho."
"No, I am so not dating him. I just got posted to this base and he was assigned as my assimilation mentor."
Holland began to laugh. "Wow only my brother manages to think that he is dating a girl that doesn't like him at all. What are you going to do, cause he's told half the base about you two."
"I'm gonna kill him, that's what I'm gonna do." Talho was not finding the situation amusing.
"If I were you I would wait until you have you welcome to the base package all signed off. If you make a big deal of it now, he's going to make your life really difficult while you have to work with him." Holland couldn't help but feel flushed as he talked with Talho. For the first time since Diane had disappeared he felt butterflies in his stomach.
"I can't let him just spread rumours about me like this." Her face was red with anger.
"Honestly it doesn't matter what you do, he's going to spread rumours ether way."
"What do you mean?" She took a long sip of her drink.
"It's and ego thing. If you Dump" Holland made quotation marks with his fingers, "him, he's gonna tell everyone that you slept around on him and he dumped you."
"He won't be able to tell any lies if I cut his tong out." She took another sip of her drink. "I think I need to get drunk."
"That sounds like a good idea." Holland indicated his empty glass.
"Well lets go, lead the way to a good bar." She stood and donned her jacket. "I suppose that we should let what's his name know that we're leaving."
"Allow me." He pulled out his cell phone "Dewey, Talho just left saying she's not feeling well. I'm gonna see if I can still salvage some waves tonight, so your on your own pal." He hung up the phone. "Lets go." He motioned toward the door.
The next morning when Holland's alarm clock went off it was all the young man could do force his eyes open and raise his hand against the offensive object. After cursing the evils of alcohol and contemplating vomiting he sat up in bed and reached for his glass of water.
It was only by the grace of God that he managed to get showered and dressed for work. An hour after his alarm went off Holland sat in the SOF Headquarter building wishing for death. The door to the office opened allowing the heinous sunlight into the room. Holland moaned. "You can't feel any worse than I do." He looked up to find Talho standing over him.
"Hey you. Not feeling so good this morning?" He tried to smile at her.
"No I'm really not. How much of last night do you remember?" She slid into the chair next to him and lowered her head to the cool desk top.
"Oh all of it. It's a gift, I never forget what happens under the influence of alcohol. Why, don't you remember?"
"Well I remember kissing you, and I remember you doing a body shot of Sour Hypnotic off my stomach, but after that it gets a little hazy." She paused for a moment. "Umm I do actually have one question about last night."
"Sure, what?" Holland leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes.
"Do you know what happened to my bra, it wasn't with the rest of my cloths from last night.
"Ahhh, ya that. You hung it up in Big Bad John's"
"Wait, we were at BBJ's?"
"After we left Psychotropic we decided that the best way to get a cab was to call and the only place that had a pay phone was BBJ's."
"Oh, why didn't we just use your cell?"
Holland pulled an mangled cell phone out of his pocket and placed it on the desk. "I have to go and get another one after work tonight."
"What happened to it?"
"I landed on it when the bouncer from Tectonics threw us out."
"Oh, I really liked that bra."
"Well, so did the crowd at BBJ's if that helps you feel any better." Holland closed if eyes again. "Talho?"
"Yes?"
"That kiss last night, did it mean anything or was it just drunken stupidity?"
"Umm, do you want it to mean something?"
"Yes."
She reached out and took his hand in hers. "Ya me to."